The Reincarnation Cycle: Infinite Blade Works
by Titan of War
Summary: Ending up in a world where you thought to be nothing more then fiction is one thing but finding you're self in the body of a certain Distorted boy who is Destined to be a third-rated Magus, is something Else Entirely. Now how are you going to survive in a world like this? the Answer is simple: by doing what you do best, inspiring fear and bringing Destruction. (Realistic character)
1. Prologue: Welcome To The New World

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I do not own The Heroes of Olympus, I do not own Fate Stay night. This story is AU

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 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

 _ **Prologue**_

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The moment that I opened my eyes, I instantly knew that something was wrong.

The Japanese room that I had found myself in was a proof of that. The fact that I could feel the breeze that came from the open window in the room, on my face, was enough to tell me that I was not in the underworld.

Despite the fact that I remembered Dying.

Getting up from the Japanese bed, I looked to my 'body'. It was not the of a grownup adult man like I had seen many times when I had looked into the mirror, but rather, the body of a young teenager. And thank goodness, it was of male gender.

Looking for something around the Japanese room which could give me a clue about where I was, I saw a small reflective clock. Picking it up, I instantly froze as I looked to the face in front of me. It was the face of a boy who looked to be not older then a teenager, with fair skin and golden-brown eyes along with short auburn hair.

I knew that face; it was the face that I had seen many times when I was watching a Japanese Anime show.

It was the face of Emiya Shirou, the distorted protagonist of Fate/Stay Night who would later become a mass Killing-Machine that is a counter-guardian.

With a _Thump,_ the clock in my hands falls on the ground while I feel my 'Legs' start to shake like a jelly. Shakily, I sat on the ground. A Thousand of questions were running around in my head and I did not even have a single answer for anyone of them.

How did my soul get into the body of Emiya Shirou? Why was I here, when I should be in the Gates of the underworld, In front of the three judges?

More importantly, what was I supposed to do now?

Fate/Stay night was not exactly the safest place where you can find you're self in, not to mention the hidden supernatural world that was out there. And that is before the cluster-fuck that is the Holy Grail war.

When you sit behind the TV and watch a few Powerful characters with superpowers, fighting each other, you can say 'oh' and 'ahs' in awe and at the end just watch the show and stick to the story. But the thing was that was it, it was a 'Story'.

None of those characters were supposed to be real.

But now I'm in a world where there are Ruthless Magi who experiment on _Children_ , and are Powerful enough to Raze cities to the ground, In order to keep their existence Secret. The Anime show did not show it but the world of Fate/Stay night and type-moon was perhaps one of the darkest worlds that could come to Life.

Throw away the good-endings, the philosophy messages, along with other things and what do you have? A World that has a hidden dark world within itself.

The world of supernatural or better known as the world of Magi.

Magi are Ruthless and cold individuals who would do anything to continue their Research and reach their own goals. The fact that they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their path, is enough to tell you about how dark the world of Magi is.

And now, like it or not, I'm in that world. In a city that had become the Grave of many. In the body of a weakling teenager who was a third-rate Magus at best.

With Seven Supernatural _Freaking_ ghosts that are fighting against each other, beings that can stand against Armies and level entire cities with their Noble Phantasm. And what was my defense against them? Nothing.

And one of them was hell-bent on killing me, in order create a paradox that could save him from the cycle that he's now stuck in for all Eternity.

The only one who could probably protect me was a certain king of knights, but even then my survival was not even guaranteed. The Saber from the Canon had been a noble and courageous Knight, but what says that she's the same saber from the Canon?

Was there even a Canon? This was the real world, so who says that everything will go according to the Show?

Based on my knowledge, Fate/Stay Night had three 'Routes' which the story would progress into. With each one of them starting from the same road and ending up on a whole different end.

And I only knew about the first and second route, I didn't know a thing about the third one.

Now the question is that are those three routes the only ones or are there actually more Routes?

And which one was I in now?

"I'm officially fucked" I summarized my situation before Face palming.

Shirou Emiya had only managed to survive by dumb luck. Because let's face it, what chance does a Dumb Distorted Untrained boy has against Six Powerful Heroic spirits and their masters?

The answer is short and simple: None.

The First time that Shirou got lucky was when he accidently summoned the strongest class in the Holy Grail war. The Second time that he got lucky was when he managed to alley himself with Rin Tohsaka. A prodigy Magus who is also an average one.

A magus who has affinity for the entire main primary Elements, and also has been trained from her childhood for the Holy Grail war, and even she was outmatched more than once.

See what I mean? Shirou Emiya survived by being the protagonist of the story and his survival was based on nothing more than Dumb Luck and Circumstances. What other explanation was there?

Whoever or whatever has put me in the body of Emiya Shirou defiantly made sure that I was fucked to the next ways to Sunday. I mean, couldn't I have ended up on the body of Saito Hiraga from familiar of Zero or Some other character who had at least a good foundation to grow strong and survive?

And how did I even end up in the body of Shirou Emiya? Could it be that my soul somehow 'moved' across dimensions and jumped into Shirou's body? Or perhaps I Had somehow reincarnated into his body and my soul 'overwrite' his or merged with it.

In any way, I'm now really deep in it.

In the show, Shirou Emiya had gained some form of an accelerated development which was the Result of him interacting with his future counter-guardian self. Which would led to him developing his Realty Marble the Unlimited blade Works.

But now there was a high chance that possibility is out of the window.

I'm not Shirou Emiya, my Personality and beliefs were not that of a distorted naïve boy who dreamed to be a super-hero. I'm a Demigod who has fought in Wars and faced immortals and legendary monsters.

The Death and destruction that I had seen and the amount of hardships that I Have been through, were enough to beat the naivety out of me and turn me into a dark and brooding Person.

Heroes are martyrs who most of the time are betrayed by the Same People who they have sworn to protect. Their Sacrifices are tossed aside like everyday's garbage until they are nothing more than just some names and images that goes down in the history. They die for faceless masses that don't even lift a finger for them.

I learned that lesson the hard-way and I was not going down that path ever again.

I _Refuse_ Shirou Emiya's dream and ideals, and that is why there is a chance that I might not be developing his realty marble in my life. And with that, my Chance of survival takes a big hit.

Taking my hand off of my 'face', I looked to the reflection on the clock once again.

This was basically my second chance to life and I was not going to allow some upstart Magi take it away from me. If need be, I will be fighting with tooth and Nail to keep it and survive.

And whoever who stands in my way will get what they Deserve. I will Crush them and destroy them without a moment of hesitation, And to do that I need to become Powerful.

Shirou Emiya was not the most powerful character in the show but he was perhaps one of the few who had great potential to grow strong. Especially with the use of his Realty marble, The Unlimited blade works.

If my soul has somehow merged with Emiya's, then I can possibly count on the fact that the Realty marble is still there but has changed and that means that it's a lot different than the one that I had seen from the show.

If not, then I would have to use my cunning and wit in order to survive. After all, I have some basic knowledge about the canon and the Characters. So that has to count for something, Right?

Looking to the clock, I could instantly see that it was at the middle of the night. Which was strange, considering that the clock had Japanese numbers written on it?

I most certainly did not learn Japanese in my 'past' life, but could it be that I was unconsciously drawing on Shirou's knowledge on Japanese language?

Closing my eyes, I focused on my mind and I instantly felt something within it. It was like a whole lot of letters that were just waiting to be opened. And each one of those letters were memories of the Shirou Emiya of this world.

Normally, I shouldn't be able to sense or to even experience them. So that means someone or something had put those memories in my head in this form, In order for me to find them and _Open_ them.

All of these facts lead to one thing.

Someone was pulling my strings and that someone was defiantly the one that thrown me into the body of the protagonist of Fate stay night.

Putting a dying demigod into someone else's body and tempering with their mind and memory so that the said demigod could see the past memories of the former resident of the body. That kind of a power was not something that everyone could have.

The worst thing was that I had no choice but to move to the road that has been built for me. I was not Shirou Emiya and naturally my behavior and personality is different from him.

Those who were close to the distorted protagonist would defiantly be suspicious when the Shirou that they know starts to act a lot different from what they know about him. So my only chance was to view Emiya Shirou's memories and set my 'behavior' a little bit according to the now gone _Emiya_ and change it with passing time.

I have to know if this world is an alternative Universe from the Show or perhaps it was one of the three main Routes.

Either way, it's going to be a long night for me.

* * *

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

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Sitting on the living room with a short wooden Japanese table in front of me, I Looked to the small cup of Tea that I had prepared, all the while my mind was working as fast as it could to find a way for me to survive the War that I knew it was coming.

All the while wondering that if I somehow pissed someone high-up, who would enjoy the irony of putting me into the body of a teenager who would soon die and me with him _Again._

It was like somebody gives you a second chance at life, only for you to find out that is nothing more than a big Cruel twisted joke. And it was a sour one at that.

Fate/stay night had been awesome show; it had perhaps one of my favorite's anime back at my world. Though there were some questions that I had when I had watched the Show.

The First question was how did Shirou managed to keep Avalon inside his body?

The sheath was a legendary item that magi would kill over, so how did a distorted untrained third-rate magus like Shirou Emiya managed to keep it without getting killed over by Some Cutthroat magi?

I had gotten the answer to that dreaded question when I was 'Looking' into Shirou's memories and needless to say that my hopes for survival were a few bars lower than they were before.

The Einzbern had spent a lot of Resources to find Avalon. So when Kiritsugu Emiya _'betrayed'_ them, they decided to reclaim what they had probably spent a lot of money and effort to find.

Even without the king of knight's Presence, the sheath was a legendary grade item that was borderline a Noble Phantasm. And no Magi family would allow such a valuable item to be taken from them because of a traitor.

They would have destroyed the Magus Killer and his adopted son, seeing as Kiritsugu being weakened and losing his edge from the man that he had once been, If Kiritsugu Emiya hadn't had Married into a _Certain_ Irish Clan with a Geis promise that they would keep Shirou Safe and get the Emiya Clan's Remaining Magi Crest, in return.

That's Right; Kiritsugu Emiya married into the Fraga Clan.

Like I said before, Magi were Ruthless individuals who would do anything to forward their Research and reach the Root. The Fraga clan was not that much different from other Magus Family. Their origins and specialty might be different but their core and Aims were the same as any other Magi Family.

With the backing of the Fraga Clan and a little bit of help from the mage association, Kiritsugu managed to negotiate on 'Peaceful Terms' and at the end. They settled with Avalon returning to Einzbern and they in return leave Shirou Emiya and Kiritsugu alone.

That deal was now punching me in the face.

Without the sheath, Shirou Emiya couldn't have summoned Arturia Pendragon from the throne of Heroes, and that means that I'm without any way of summoning the king of knights. And without her I'm, Once again, officially fucked.

Scratch that, I'm now a dead man walking.

Without saber, I'm basically a walking Defenseless target that is just waiting for 'certain' archer to put a few good arrows in it. Not to mention the one important fact that has the world's future on it:

Without Saber, how am I going to stop Angra Mainyu from being born into the world?

Alaya would defiantly send her attack dogs, also known as the counter-guardians, to destroy the threat to humanity's survival and who knows how many damage that would cause. There is a chance that there might not even be a Japan in the aftermath.

And there is a lot of 'ifs' involved with that Kind of thinking.

Now I have a few ways ahead of me which I could take, though most of those ways ended up with me being laughed at and send to a mental asylum or outright experimented on like some lab rat and then killed at the end.

The first way is that I, Somehow, go to London; speak with the mage-association and inform them that the manifestation of the world's evil has corrupted the grail and is trying to be born into the world and destroy it.

That way would not work because what credibility did a boy's words have to the noble Magi Families. Besides, they would see this as a nothing more than a childish attempt to destroy the grail because of the Fuyuki fire Incident.

It's natural for the only survivor of that _'Tragedy'_ to foster hatred and revenge towards the object that caused him to lose his family and his identity.

The same thing applies if I go to the church.

The second way is to somehow talk to Rin Tohsaka, the future ally of Shirou Emiya, and convince her that her father died at the hands of his own apprentice; and that everything she had trained for and learned since childhood, had been for nothing more than a corrupt grail which she could never use.

And somehow help me stop the Holy Grail war.

She will either see this as an attempt to stop her from entering the war, or she would punch me in the face and throw me out of her house and then send into a mental asylum. And that is if she's the version of _Rin Tohsaka_ that I know from the show.

What guarantees did I have that this was the Rin Tohsaka from the show and not some other real life version of herself who is probably a ruthless Magi who will not hesitate to use Shirou Emiya for her own End?

And the second plan goes straight to the trashcan.

The third choice was that I, again somehow, manage to get out of Fuyuki and leave well-Enough alone without entering the Holy Grail war. Now the problem was that without Shirou Emiya, the Holy Grail war would officially be a ticking bomb that is waiting to blow on the world's face.

Kirei Kotomine would get his wish and see the world burn as Angra Mainyu is born. And I Will be dead like the rest of humanity.

And with that, I'm out of Plans. My knowledge of the future might as well be a dangling card in front of my face, taunting me that I'm going to die because of circumstances out of my reach.

The only silver of hope that I had was that this Shirou Emiya had been 'Trained' since childhood by the Magus killer. With the world of Magi knowing about his existence, Kiritsugu knew that Shirou needed to know how to defend him but sadly the wannabe-hero had not taken his instructions seriously.

Emiya Shirou wanted to be a hero, not a Magus and so whatever that Kiritsugu had tried to teach him he would always practice it with zealous glee but sadly Shirou's magical circuits weren't the top of condition and his naivety had severely damaged what Kiritsugu had tried to teach him.

Add the fact that The Magus killer was not a proper magus, and so he couldn't teach Shirou much and lacked the experience to teach magecraft, and I'm still stuck with a talentless third-rate Magus that is Shirou Emiya.

"I just can't Catch a break" I sip my Tea and slowly Rubbed my eyes.

Despite my severe disadvantage, I still had enough skills and abilities in my arsenal to tip the odds a little in my favor. And one of them was experience and skill; I had a lot of skills in my sleeve along with a lot of experience that comes from fighting against immortals and legendary monsters.

I have fought in two wars; I have tricked immortals and monsters alike. The Holy Grail war had another thing coming to it and no one knew that it would from someone who they won't even deem to be a threat.

I had a year or two, seeing as because of my appearance, I could only guess that Shirou Emiya had been a year older or at least two years older when he stumbled into the Holy Grail War. And two years was enough for me to bring this body up to speed through intense training.

More importantly, I had knowledge about how Shirou Emiya's abilities and how to use it effectively. Though I probably had to do a lot of Research and Practice before I can use Shirou Emiya's abilities.

But first I have to Test My 'Magical circuits' which is defiantly going to be my last hope to survive.

Shirou Emiya might have possessed realty Marble with unlimited Noble phantasms in it. But he did not have the energy to utilize it. That was why he had to make a contract with Rin Tohsaka in the unlimited blade works route so that he could utilize it against The King of Heroes.

But now the case was different. My soul was the soul of a Demigod Son of Hecate and that defiantly made me more attuned to Magic. Seeing as it is my mother's Domain.

So there was a chance that I had now High quality Magical circuits that was just waiting to be Tested and used. And that was the only tiny light of hope that kept me from outright panicking.

With my Eyes Closed, I imagined a big hammer slowly rising before quickly hitting the Anvil with a big _Clang._

"Trace on" I opened my eyes and look towards the small cup of tea, ignoring the pain that I felt coming from my back as if someone has put a hot iron bar on my back, the mana gathered around my eyes focused on the structure of the object and slowly information started to flow into my mind as if I was watching a video.

 _Scanning the Object's Shape_

 _Processing construction methods_

 _Reproducing Resources_

 _Reproducing Construction methods_

I looked to the small Duplicated cup in my hand; its shape looked to be a bit more open and I could see a lot of faults in its construction but it was still something. With a thought I dropped the imperfect square empty like cup on the ground as it dissolved itself into Prana.

It hadn't a perfect replication by any means, but the fact that I could do it. Showed that I had a chance to survive the Holy Grail war, though this was nothing compared to the Noble Phantasms that some _Heroic spirits_ that I know, could use in the war.

Lancer, Archer, Saber, Caster, Berserker, Assassin and Rider.

Each one of the seven heroic spirits that I knew could easily Defeat me and destroy me as if I am a fly. There was a Reason that heroic spirits are considered to be beings that are leagues above humans, even Magi.

They are legendary beings who have ascended into the throne of heroes.

What chance do the Magi have against beings that can outrun an airplane, lift a bus or destroy cities and armies using their noble phantasms? None, you might as well be comparing an ant against an elephant.

And I have to fight against six of those beings and stand against Gilgamesh, the freaking king of heroes who has a Treasury full of legendary weapons and items that one of them can literally split the Planet into half.

Though again comes the first question that had come up into my mind: who says that the heroic spirits that are going to be summoned are the same ones from the show?

And if they are the same ones, then are their noble phantasms, Powers and tactics, the same ones that I know from the show?

I would have thought more about the situations that I'm going to face in the future, if I Didn't heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the room that I was sitting in before someone opened the door and stepped into living room.

She was a young woman who was wearing a black color shirt along with blue color Jean. She had short auburn Red hair and a mole near her right eye. She had a well-balanced figure that came from someone who had spent their time Practicing martial arts and Working out their body.

Her eyes were cold and hard before they softened up when they saw me.

I instantly felt a small knot of fear with myself, because the woman in front of me might have been a few years older than me but she was on a league of her own compared to the previous occupant of the body that I was now in.

She is Bazett Fraga, an Enforcer working for the Mage association. This was a woman who killed Magi and faced monsters for work and living. So it was natural for me to revert back to instincts that I had gotten from fighting in wars against monsters and immortals.

Remaining in the way that I had been and sipping my tea as if nothing had happened. Never once did I break eye contact with the woman in front of me. I just sat there calmly and looked into the eyes of a killer who I knew could easily overwhelm me with her Prowess, Skills and Tactics.

I was not ready to face opponents on this scale and league. _Yet._

"good-morning, Shirou" the woman in front of me greets me casually before going into the kitchen and opening the fridge. "you're up early as ever, eh?"

I Couldn't answer because my mind was already running as fast it could in order to formulate a Response that 'Shirou Emiya' would have made in my place, Not a Response that I would have made.

And as luck would have it, I was a great actor when it came to these things.

"Good-Morning Bazett-Nee" I said with carefully calm and joyful voice of Emiya Shirou. I had spent hours practicing and studying Shirou Emiya's behaviors, Patterns and Personality. I had seen the kid's memories and experienced them as if I was living them. So it was no surprising for me that Combined with a little bit of practice, I'm able to imitate him perfectly.

Though I knew that wouldn't stop Enforcer's instincts from sensing some kind of change.

"You've been up all night again, haven't you?" the enforcer grabs a plate of sandwich from the fridge and closes it before coming to the table and sitting at the opposite of me.

I mentally smirked because she had walked right into one of the 'surprises' that I had made in case things become a little too dangerous for my health.

"I really can't understand it why you work in that damn shack all the time," the enforcer took a bit of her sandwich and chewed on it before gulping it down. "you really should cut it out or else you'll Damage you're health or Sleep time. Though not that would you care, seeing as you would do anything to get to your Dream." She finishes with a mocking tone.

"And what dream would that be, Nee-san?" I said while carefully reviewing the first step of my plan which is going to start right now. It was a dangerous step, one that I would need to carefully consider. Or else it might blow up on my face like a ticking time-bomb.

Not that I don't have one already. The Holy Grail was doing a fine job for that Role.

"Don't make me say it Shirou," the enforcer's voice gains a calm and dangerous tone to it. "I'm not going to say anything about how stupid you're dream is."

And that was the answer that I had been hoping to hear. The difference between Realistic thinking and Wishful thinking of a boy wet behind his ears, was Experience.

Bazett was an enforcer of the Mage association. There were a lot of Dangers and threats within her line work; the Mage association was a den of vipers and vultures that won't hesitate to use any kind of weakness against you, in order to fulfill their own goals and aims. It didn't matter to them if you were an enforcer, or a normal Magi. They would use you as they have used any other tool and then throw you away when you're not useful anymore.

That was the Reason that Shirou Emiya had been forced by the Fraga Clan to throw away his first adopted family's name. As far as the world of Magi considered, Kiritsugu Emiya died and with him, the line of the ancient Magi Family that called themselves 'Emiya'.

Kiritsugu Emiya had made a lot of Powerful Enemies within the world of supernatural And Magi, Enemies that wouldn't hesitate to Destroy and kill anyone who has the Name Emiya on them.

By forcing him to forsake his first adopted name, the Fraga clan had sent a clear message to the world of Magi. Kiritsugu Emiya was dead along with the Emiya Line. Shirou Fraga was 'part' of the Fraga Clan and he did not have any kind of connection with the Magus Killer.

End of story.

Shirou might have seen this as some kind of a betrayal or desecration to the memory of his dead adopted father, but I see this as a pragmatic solution that made sure that no one with a grudge comes after my head.

I already had enough enemies on my plate, I don't need any extras.

Shirou Emiya's dream is to become a superhero, to make sure that no one else cries again and to 'save' those who he couldn't have saved from the Fuyuki fire.

It was a Naïve and foolish dream, and I can't believe that I had once believed in it, a long time ago.

No matter how hard you try, you can't save everyone. There would always be those who will experience hardship and Pain. It was the natural way of the world; Pain and happiness were the beard and butter that come hand in hand with life.

That was Realty. And experience had shown me that fighting against realty did not End well for you. You had to learn to comprehend it, to accept it and move on if you can't do anything about it.

That was why Bazett and Shirou couldn't have gotten along well; she was a Magus who had been forced to grow up quickly with the pains and harshness's of reality being her lessons. She's an Enforcer who had seen how cruel and dangerous the world of Magi is.

And Shirou was… Shirou.

He was distorted; so he can't comprehend the value of his own life and will try to be the 'hero' that would save everyone. He was a Faker; even his own dreams weren't his own but his adopted father's.

But that was Shirou Emiya, the protagonist of Fate stay night. And I was not _that_ Shirou Emiya, I Wasn't going to be the protagonist, but the Monster of Fate stay night. I was going to be the one that _will_ become a Player, Instead of being a Piece in the chessboard or a puppet in a Puppeteer show that is being made by a certain corrupt sadistic Priest.

And the first step to do that was to convince others to take me seriously. In the show, No one took Shirou Emiya seriously because in their eyes, he was an untrained third rated Magus who didn't possess any kind of a serious threat to him. The only thing that made him a threat in their eyes was his Servant, Saber.

It didn't matter if the master of what is considered to be the strongest class within the Holy Grail, had been a third-rated amateur. Saber still had been a formidable Opponent who had managed to hold her own against the likes of Berserker and Lancer.

and Neither one of those two were easy opponents.

"I won't make you say it because honestly, whoever thinks that I'm going to become some kind of a superhero really deserves to be a Moron." I took a sip of my tea before leveling my gaze towards the enforcer sitting in front of me.

Putting her sandwich on the plate, she put her hand under her chin and looked to be with a neutral expression on her face. "So you finely agree that you're dream is nothing more than a stupid wish-full thinking that you got from that man?" she asked with a neutral voice.

"Not a dream," I clarified. "But a mask that Kiritsugu made for me in order to make sure that I could fool those around me into thinking that I'm nothing more than a third-rated distorted Magus who dreams to become a 'hero'."

Instantly I felt a sudden 'whoosh' like sound coming in the air and before I knew it, There was a Fist inches away from my nose. I calmly look to the face of the enforcer who had suddenly stood up -with such speed that was above what a human athlete could ever hope to achieve- and had thrown a precise punch against me, that would have definitely knocked me out cold or killed me by blowing my head off like a watermelon or breaking my skull like a hammer hitting a Nut.

Bazett's speed had been beyond what I had calculated by any means but my 'surprise' had spring itself the moment that she had any harmful intentions and thoughts towards me.

Her strength is not going to be something to be underestimated either.

"You won't be moving without me freeing you from that," I leaned back a little and then finished my tea and put the cup on my side of the table. "The first strike was a warning; The next one will shut down all of your vital organs, And then you'll be good as gone."

I look towards the frozen enforcer, before taking a deep breath. I was never gladder that I had spent time training and learning about Magic and how to be a magician, The notes and spells that I had also learned from one of Percy Jackson's friends had helped me more then I could count.

when you're a demigod, You need every advantage and edge that you could get, in order to survive long enough to even think about finishing high school and going to college.

"Do you know how hard it is to live your life, knowing that someone, sooner or later, is going to come after you just because you're adopted _Father_ had put a bullet between some family members of his?" I looked to the woman's eyes as I spoke the words.

In the show, it did not show much about how Shirou's childhood had been but I knew how it had been in this world.

There were times where Shirou had been so afraid of the darkness that he could not even sleep in his own room alone without someone else being there. He had been afraid that someone was suddenly going to come after him and do something to him, in order to somehow 'hurt' Kiritsugu.

There was a reason that Kiritsugu Emiya had been called the Magus Killer and the amount of body counts that he had in his name, had been the reason why he had been called the Magus Killer.

Kiritsugu had been a killer that killed magi and exterminated them for a living. His moral code was twisted beyond measure and dangerously flexible. And it didn't matter to him how much he had to kill, in order to the save the bigger number of lives.

 _Ruthless_ , those who were around him called him. _Terrorist,_ the populations called him. _The Magus killer_ , the Magi and those of the supernatural world called him.

It didn't matter to him what they all called him. Because at the end, at the core of his being, he was a Killer who dreamed to become a hero.

Though, what was a hero?

Was it someone who fought against Injustice and protected the weak? Was it someone who stood for what is 'right' and against something that is 'wrong'?

That question was one with many – and perhaps infinite- answers. But to me, a hero had been someone who was willing to do what was necessary, When others shy away from doing what it needs to be done. A hero was not someone who would be respected and admired and loved. Most of the time, Their lives would end up with tragedy and they become sacrifices for the faceless people who wouldn't even care to learn their names and know about them.

Reality was the boundary between dreams and the real world. And let's face it, sometimes the world doesn't need another hero.

sometimes it needs a monster and Kiritsugu had been that monster.

It was almost funny, how much he and I had in common. although I have more body counts in my name then him. I hadn't been just a killer. I had been a monster that Kept Others safe by doing what needed to be done. I did what those around me didn't have the will to do, I crossed the red tape and lost my humanity, so that others could keep theirs and sleep well in the night while I was seeing nightmare after nightmare.

I did not dream to be a hero, nor did I want to be one. But someone had to do what needed to be done. And for that, I was hated and shunned. Called and viewed to as a cold-hearted monster.

And the ironic thing was that all that I had ever wanted to was to survive and live my life past the expression date that was on all demigods. When you're a demigod, the most hopeless thing for you is to know that not many of your kind lived even long enough to get their high school diploma.

survival was one of the greatest motivations for someone to work hard. And so I had put myself into an intense training regime and conditioning. In order to survive and see the next day of life.

But no matter how hard you try, a Man's strength doesn't just come from his own skills and Resources.

It also comes from his allies and those around him.

Something which I intended to gain right now.

"You and I," I gestured between the enforcer and myself, "we both are on the same side of the Coin, with the difference being that you're an enforcer who can protect herself while I'm nothing more than a third-rate Magus at best who can't even hope to protect himself, in a world full of Magi and killers that are looking to get a piece of him."

With a snap of my finger, the Magical hieroglyph under the pillow that Bazett had been sitting on, deactivates and causes the enforcer to stubble a little bit before she steadies herself. The woman Looks to me with her eyes and this time, there was no trace of the previous mask that had been on her face.

Her eyes were cold and calculating, they were analyzing and look to me with a new light. As if I was someone who she did not recognize anymore. This was not the look that she had given Shirou, The naïve distorted boy.

This was the look that she give towards someone who she knew was not to be underestimated.

"You want me to help you train, don't you?" the enforcer frowns. "That was the Reason that you decided to throw away you're mask, wasn't it? So that you could gain my trust and ask me to teach you how defend you're self."

"No" I shook my head and said the next words without hesitation. "I don't want you to train me to defend myself; I want you to train me to _kill_. Because let's face it, Mercy is a concept that Magi don't care about and I don't see any Reason to give it towards those who will show me none."

Of course, I knew how to kill efficiently and effectively but I just needed someone who could help me bring my body up to shape and supply me with information and events that are happening in the current timeline of The World of Magi. But the enforcer in front of me didn't need to know that.

It was better for the sake of my health that I keep a lot of cards close and reveal them when I really need to. more importantly, this gives me a excuse that I can use to answer any kind of question or suspicion that might be brought into how I was practicing and doing things that a boy like Shirou shouldn't be able -or know how- to do in the first place.

Shirou was not trained in close quarter combat, hand to hand combat techniques or other kinds of skills that came from someone who had to learn a lot of thing.

Both for the sake of survival and Living.

Things like psychological warfare, Information extraction and other kinds of special ops skills. These skills were not the kind of things that I could be able to explain to anyone without putting myself in risk of being suddenly found out.

I did not want to know what Bazett –or other Magi within this world- would do to me, if she finds out that I'm not the 'Shirou' that she knows. Hence the reason why I'm trying to lay the foundation that would help me avoid a lot of holes that might appear in my cover story in the future.

There a lot of enforcers and Magi who were more cruel and dangerous then Bazett Fraga and I didn't want to get 'deeply acquainted' with them, thank you very much.

The Said enforcer looks down towards the pillow that she had been setting on a few moments ago, she picked up the pillow and looked down towards the runic hieroglyph sign that I had put under the pillow.

She blinks a few times, before her eyes widen a bit with surprise.

"You had studied the runic magic Instruction notes that I give you." she looks to me suspiciously before looking down towards the Magical Runic sign that I had made on the floor. "This one's is in a hieroglyph shape rather than a Irish Sign, It's a Complex Runic array that is made to activate upon detection any kind of a aggressive intent from the one that is standing…" she trailed off before gazing towards me again with a Raised eyebrow.

"You made a Rune that not only activates upon detecting aggressive intent but one that also feeds on the Prana of the decapitated and then use it to kill the Magi after feeding to a certain point of Prana to charge... Do you have any idea what kind of a thing you have made?" She finishes with a deadpan tone.

"I have a feeling that you're going to tell me."

"This is not just a Normal Rune Magic that some amateur third-rated magus can make up after reading a few instruction Notes. This is the work of a professional Magus who has designed something that can be specifically used to kill or decapitate other Magi. So Shirou is there anything else that you _forget_ to reveal to me?"

I did not miss the accusing tone in her voice.

"Bazett, I Just showed you that I have been playing the Naïve distorted fool for years. Do you really think that is the only thing that I have been hiding?" I pointedly glare at the enforcer. "Besides, you don't see me ask you about you're secrets. The least I expect from you is to do the same for me."

"Fair Enough" the enforcer reluctantly agreed, Before pointing with her index finger towards the Mark that I had made on the floor.

To someone who did not knew about the existence of the supernatural world, it might look like a hieroglyphic Like Image that was in form of a small triangle with three small circles within it but for someone who was experienced in the use of Rune Sign Magecraft, It's a complex Magical seal that had various complicated uses and contingencies stored within it.

I can't manipulate the elements to my whim, and I can't hope to overpower my opponents. but what I lacked in raw Power; I countered with flexibility, adaptability and skill.

"How many of these things do you have in this house?" Bazett moves her finger and I instantly see a small ball of raw Prana forming at the tip of her finger and then being sent towards the small seal.

"enough that i can feel at least a bit secure." i said cryptically before looking towards the seal.

The Moment that the small Prana ball hit the seal; it was instantly devoured by it, and then I calmly watched as the seal slowly started to grow and then glow with a faint blue light before it slowly started to grow smaller.

"So it also Uses the gained Prana to expand itself and then start it's other secondary functions. And then it folds and compacts itself back into its original form, in order Protect it's secrets and avoid being analyzed by a _structural analyzes_ spell."

I made a mental note to not underestimate the enforcer's intelligence. This woman had shown that she not only had the power but also the brain, not that I had expected anything else from someone who made her living from killing Rogue Magi.

Bazett was kind, hardworking individual who also had a strong sense of justice and while she's a bit short tempered. She can also be calculating and I can see that while she presents a front of a mature and strong-will women. She's also a bit lonely

I had experienced that loneliness a lot of times and ultimately that loneliness had been the reason that I couldn't hope to establish a Good Relationship with others and had been socially awkward in a lot of situations.

Bazett was the same like in me in that aspect; she's a lonely woman who couldn't hope to establish a meaning connection with her own family because of the fact that most of them were Magi who wouldn't hesitate to use her for their own ends. That was why the woman had sought out companionship in the oddest place that she could have looked for.

In a house of the one of her new 'distant relative' who his name is now Shirou Emiya, a distorted survivor of the great Fuyuki Fire who only had a few people in his life.

And then comes the old saying that Beggars can't be choosers. In time, Shirou had grown on the lonely enforcer and looked to her as some sort of a sisterly-figure in his life.

Even though Shirou's Naivety clashed with her realistic thinking.

I felt a bit guilty manipulating the enforcer a bit but what exactly can I do? I can't tell her that I'm a demigod who somehow ended up in the body of an individual who he had thought to be nothing more than fiction.

"So, do we have a deal?" I ask the enforcer while mentally praying that my demigod rotten luck is not universal.

"On one condition." she puts her arm under chest with a look that I knew all too well, it was the look of a woman who wasn't going to budge on something that she wanted. "You'll give me a few tips in the Rune Magecraft and help me advance my magecraft a little bit; In return, I'll teach you everything that Kiritsugu couldn't, I'll teach you everything that I know about being a _Proper_ Magus."

like I said, beggars can't be choosers and it's not like I can refuse that deal. I need the knowledge, training and the help that she could give me, in order to not only to survive but to think of something that can possibly make sure that I don't end up dead and think about what I'm going to do about the holy grail war and how I'm going to survive when it comes to that.

"You have a deal," I get up with a tired sigh. "Now if you excuse me I have to go shopping."

I can worry about going to the school later, right now; I had a lot of things to do. And I didn't even want to think about how to deal with the headaches that I knew I was going to get in the future.

It was best to cross that bridge when I have reached it.

* * *

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

* * *

The Holy Grail war was a war between seven master and seven legendary Heroic spirits who were summoned by their masters, in order to fight in a battle royal against each other, in order to claim the ultimate prize.

The Holy Grail.

It was not the famous cup of messiah who one would mistake it for when they would hear its name. it was a wish-granting machine which allowed one to make a wish and then it would to make it come true. It didn't matter if you wanted to conquer the world or to take control of the Universe itself, The Grail would provide it.

To understand the Holy Grail war, one would first need to understand how it came to be and how it became what it is now.

One upon a time, there had been three magi families. The Matou, the Tohsaka and the Einzbern. Each one of the three magus families had been powerful in terms of influence, Resources or Magecraft.

And like any other Magus Family, their ultimate goal was to reach Akasha. The Root of all knowledge, and with access to it's records, it would have allowed them to evolve their Magecraft to the height of True Magic itself. To have access to all the knowledge and information that they couldn't even dream off.

To reach their ultimate –yet similar- Goal, the three magus Family decided to pull their Resources together and created a way which would allow them to get what they want. Their purposes and Methods might have been different but the end goal had been the same.

They created a Magical wish granting machine which would allow them to gain access to the Akasha. Of course, all bets and alliances were thrown out of the window when they found out that only one of them could gain what they want and the two others would have to pick up the scraps and start looking for another way to reach the root.

They had pulled their Resources; used their magecraft and spend a lot of considerable time together, In order to create a way to reach the ultimate goal of every magi. only to find out that only one of the three families could claim the rewards for all of their combined efforts.

It was unacceptable for them, so all of it came down to a war between the three Magi. I didn't know about the details of the war but suffice to that say that the memories that I got from Shirou Emiya, told me that things had been so heated that the Mage association was forced to intervene and broker a peace between the three families, or risk the mundane world knowing about the existence of Magecraft and supernatural.

The next Major event that shaped the Holy Grail war was the interference of the church itself that couldn't ignore the fact that there was a wish granting machine in the hands of the Magi of the Mage association and Clock-tower.

There had been a balance of Power between the two Major organizations and the Grail had basically shifted the pedestal. So to avoid all out war and risk the destruction of everything that they both had created and preserved, the church and the mage association agreed that the Holy Grail could not be allowed to be directly in the hands of either of the two organizations.

they both knew that they had to compromise, Otherwise they would risk an all out war against each other or possibly a massive civil war and infighting that would defiantly occur for the possession of the Grail. The Mage association and the church might be two organizations that showed a unified and powerful front but at the core, everyone had their own goals and agendas.

And if there was one thing that the church and the mage association both had in common, it was that both of them were _tenacious_ when it came to reaching their goals.

And let's not forget the fact that should something like an all out war happen between the two organizations, the risk of the existence of the supernatural world being known to the public and the governments would go off the charts. Can you imagine how they would react, once they know that there are individuals who can accomplish feats like manipulating the very _elements_ themselves and stand against armies?

And let's not think about how many revelations and catastrophic events will happen once the world knows about the existence of the hidden supernatural world.

The risk was just too much and unacceptable, because the very existence of the supernatural world was at stake. So the Mage associations and the church were forced to devise a answer which would allow them to avoid all of that.

And so they created the ritual of the heaven's Fel or more commonly known as the Holy Grail war. A battle royal between seven masters and seven heroic spirits, where the three founding families of the Holy Grail war would automatically be given a spot in the said battle-royal and the Rest of the world would simply have to compete with the notion of gaining the command seals which would allow them to join the Holy Grail war.

In the show –or anime- things had not been just this dark. Which confirms one of the theories that I had that the world that I had found myself into was basically a alternative Universe then the one that I had seen from the TV or it was just simply that my luck was so bad that I had possibly ended up in the most darkest Route of the Fate stay night that i did not even knew about.

In this world, the command seals were considered to be highly wanted treasures. And to the Magi, it was one way ticket to their most ambitious, ultimate dream and goal: The Akasha Records.

Assassination, political maneuvering or experimentation.

It didn't matter to them how, but every magus worth their salt wanted to have command seals. And it didn't matter to them how they would gain it, only the end Results mattered to them.

And now looking in front of the mirror, I could only look towards my reflection on the mirror. And think about how really I had my work cut out for me. After buying a good hair dye, I had instantly started to dye my hair to the normal color that I had liked back in my 'previous life'.

To me it was a sign that I was not Shirou Emiya and that my previous life was gone. I will mourn for it and will cry like any other Person that finds himself in a world that he had once thought to be nothing more than fiction and will have to fight against the odds that are against him, in order to survive.

Dying my hair black, is a way for me to move on and send a deep message to myself whenever that I look into the mirror. My name is now Shirou Fraga and perhaps one day, I will reclaim the word 'Emiya' but that day was long away from now. First I have to carve my way into the Holy Grail war, and I had no illusion that there will be many who will be standing in my way.

They will show me no mercy and will kill or sacrifice me for their own goals and ambition. And this is why that I have no qualms about showing them why they must fear me. These Magi might think that they have seen true war and darkness but the truth was that they have merely adopted the Dark.

I was born into the Dark, molded by it and then forced to face countless opponents both legendary and immortal, who wanted to kill –or eat me, depending on the circumstances- simply because I was born as a demigod. I have gazed into the true face of Tartarus and the primordial has gazed right back at me. and By the time that I had seen the light, it had been nothing more than a blinding for me.

now, it was time to show these Magi what it means to be a monster. They're nothing against the real monsters that I had faced. And frankly, the most important thing was that they die when you killed them. Not like the monsters that went into Tartarus and reformed at a later time and came back and attempted to kill you again.

They _die_. Like me and any other human being.

"Let the game begin." The Smile that had formed on my face was not a innocent smile that you might find on the face of a boy, it was the smile of a trickster who had tricked and manipulated both immortal and mortal alike, it was the smile of a man who had fought against both myths and Legends alike.

It was the smile of a Monster who was going show the supernatural world the true meaning of fear and destruction.


	2. Chapter 1: The Steel-Wrought Magus

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Fate stay night, Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the heroes of Olympus and other works.

 _ **Author's note:**_ First of all, I like to thank you all for your reviews and to tell you that I have been reading a lot of works lately and a lot of them have inspired me in a lot of ways that I could have possibly imagined. So before we get on with the story, I like to thank the various authors and Writers who have inspired me and helped me get various ideas for this chapter.

I'm also going to thank various authors and fellow-would-be writers who work hard for their projects and tell them that I respect their works and have been inspired by their writings and Chapters. I recommend anyone to go their respective profile-page in the site and read their stories and works.

Also, here are stories that I would recommend for everyone to read and take a look at.

 **Chiaroscuro** (by  boomvroomshroom)

( _ **A short summary about the respective story:**_ it is a Naruto Fan fiction which focuses on the life of a certain shadow-wielding genius called Shikamaru Nara, It is both realistic and balanced when it comes to comedy, Action and mystery. If any of you are fans of Naruto and want to see one of the most ultimate Projects within the site, then go and read the story. I recommend it for anyone. Just read the first chapter and I guarantee that you will add the story to your favorites and followers within Minutes.)

 **A world full of monsters** (by _Fahad09_ )

( _ **A short summary about the respective story:**_ a world full of monsters is a Naruto Fan Fiction which is Au and the main Character is a Hyuuga Male Self-insert OC Who his goal is to ascend into god-hood and take away a certain rabbit goddess's Eyes. It's an Anti-hero Main Character story and is heavily AU. If you want a big dosage of Realistic thinking, Best comedy and action story, Then I recommend that you read this story.)

 _ **Why me?**_ (By _Marcus Galen sands_ )

( _ **A short summary about the respective story:**_ it is a Self-insert story of familiar of zero X-over, the story has inspired a lot of people and I can proudly say that I have learned a lot of things here and there from the respective author and his works. The theme of the story is Mystery, action and adventure, along with a little bit of a realistic thinking. So I recommend you go and read it people and you'll see what I'm saying.)

 _ **And now about the story:**_ Now, I have been reading a lot of Fate Stay/night works and crossovers lately and I'm honestly a little bit of disappointed about some works and their respective authors _**(no offence, I respect you're works and I won't comment about them)**_ and lately, there have been a lot of works where Shirou Emiya (somehow) manages to defeat everyone of his opponents and then somehow become Over-powered through the use of his Reality Marble.

Really, I humbly _request_ that you all go to Fate stay/night wiki and look into The Shirou Emiya's Page and read it to the end. Shirou Emiya might have his reality marble, but he doesn't have the energy to utilize it properly! Ex-ranked Noble Phantasms are _impossible_ to be projected into the world (due to the lot of energy that is needed, and their powers), and A-ranked Noble phantasms do have a lot of conditions set into them which makes them _nearly_ Impossible to trace Noble phantasms of that caliber. Not to mention that every noble phantasm within the unlimited blade works, is a _copy of the original one_ which means that it goes one Rank-down then the original ones.

So could someone please tell me, how the hell, Shirou Emiya is able Trace Enkidu (Gilgamesh's chains) project Gae-Bolg (lancer's spear) and use it with the power of the original one? Oh to hell with it, how is he able to project EA?

I don't know what to say anymore, because honestly, I'm out of words about this. So I'll leave it here at that and let you respective readers to be ones who will think about it.

(Because I really don't know what to think about this)

So about my ideas about how to continue my story, let's start with the original plot of the fate stay night. Shirou Emiya is a third-rated teenage magus who ends up into joining the Holy Grail war, due to various circumstances out of his reach. And then you know the rest about what happens to him and his future (depending on the Route and the plot)

Well, I'm going to be straight with everyone and say that this is _**not**_ going to be that kind of story.

I don't want a main character that is nothing more than a teenager who dreams about being a hero or his ideals. I don't want the Shirou Emiya who is as green as the grass; I want The SHIROU EMIYA who is at his peak, with skills and abilities which he has mastered through time, experience and hard-effort. That is the reason why I put a battle-hardened Demigod in the plot, because this way, I'll have the Room to expand the character and his abilities or Personality. He's not Shirou Emiya and nor does he wish to become a hero; he's a survivor who has fought his way in a world full of myth and legends. He's a Soldier who has fought and killed, not the Naive Idealist and optimistic hero who is used by everyone around him and then discarded at the end of the life. He's a man who had to survive in an environment full of monsters that constantly hunted him or immortals who sought to use him. He's doesn't help strangers who he doesn't know nor does he care about the faceless masses or those who don't care about him in return and are not close to him. He's not a Teenager; he's an experienced adult and is Realistic.

I want the Rin Tohsaka who is at her peak of condition, a Magus who has affinity for the main primary elements and the skills and spells that allows her to be a _Real_ -opponent in the Holy Grail war. With her mind and experience as a real-magus, being something which allows her to be able to outmaneuver and out-smart her opponents. She's not naïve enough to think that she can out-smart or out-power everyone; this is the Rin Tohsaka who is tempered and hardened in a world full of Ruthless Magi and cutthroat Mages who won't hesitate to use her for their own ends. This is the Rin Tohsaka who had to face such a world as the only member of the Tohsaka Family, as the only _surviving_ member of the Tohsaka Family.

I want the Sakura Matou who is not the 'poor-used-victim' of fate stay night; I want the Sakura Matou who has the mind and the experience to back-her up. The sakura Matou who knows how to play the game and has saved herself, Rather than waiting for someone to come and help her, The sakura Matou who has a wish, Dream and conviction to reach it like anyone else. Have her abilities and merits that she can use for her gain and purposes.

I have made it as simple as I could, and if you still don't get it, then send me a PM or a Review and I'll try to explain it in a more 'Detailed' way. And by the way I won't reveal much about the story anymore. Seeing as it would spoil the story, the plots and the elements within it.

So ready you're selves, because this chapter is going to close a lot of plot-holes. Change a lot of things and reveal so much about the Future of This fate-stay night. And the secrets which have been buried in the past, now here we go:

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

 _ **Chapter 1**_

One of the most dreadful things that any demigod fears is Sleeping.

You would think that someone who has fought against legendary monsters and immortals wouldn't be afraid of just lying down on his bed and closing his eyes. But the thing was that sleeping never really did ended-up well for a half-blood.

Demigod dreams and Nightmares were not something that could be taken lightly. Most of the time, they were a very terrifying combination that showed you things that you either didn't want to know or see.

Some wounds never truly heal, and all that it takes is a few words for them to be reopened and start bleeding again. Some things are just better to be left forgotten, rather than be remembered.

The Scene that I find myself in was something that I had seen a lot of times. It was a Dream that reminded me of who I am and what kind of blood runs in my veins.

This body, the former body of Shirou Emiya, has changed.

At first it had been the reappearance of a few scars here and there, but then it had slowly started with my blood and then with my hair and skin. If I could, I would have asked and Researched about it from within the Mage-association's libraries and occult books, but I didn't dare to take a chance for someone connect the dots and Suspect that I'm a Reincarnated Demigod.

It was a rule of the world that no matter how Powerful or experienced you think you are, there are always those who are more powerful and smarter then you.

I was no son of Hades, neither did I knew much about reincarnation. But I knew that my body was slowly changing and adapting to the soul that is within it, and with it came a lot of things that I had wished that could have stayed back in my previous body.

My ADHD, Dyslexia and Demigod dreams were among those, along with a few extra things that I suspect that had come from the 'puppet master' who I knew was pulling my strings.

It was normal room, one that you would normally see in one of those western movies. There was a normal bed along with a TV in front of it. At the middle of the room, there was a wooden chair and a wooden table. The curtains covered the windows and the only source of light was from a lamp near the bed.

Sitting on the chair, there was a man who was wearing a black color business suit. He looked to be in his thirties and had black color hair and beard. His face was down and covered by the shadows. But I knew this man, he was the one who had worked himself to the bone and provided for me.

My Father, Reza Dastan.

One of the best things that I had ever had in life and had been taken from me, the man who had Taught me many things and had became the foundation of who I am and had stood against legends, in order for me to live.

This man was a fighter who fought to the end, not just for himself but also for his family.

"Why?" His face was wet with tears and his eyes were red because of crying, his fierce gaze was aimed towards the 'women' who was standing on the other side of the table. Her whole body was covered by a dark black cloak while a Weasel was sitting beside her feet.

"Why did you lie to me Hecate?" his voice was cold and had a dangerous edge to it. "Why did you do this to me?"

There was a moment of silence before my Father shot out of his chair. His warped, twisting Shadow towards over my Immortal mother and stretched across the Room, where it moved across the wall behind my father and took on the appearance of a twisted shadow like being that seemed to be ready to attack the immortal at any given moment.

Seeing this, the weasel instantly moved behind my immortal mother and made itself look as little as possible.

My father had been a patient man who could tolerate a lot of things. I had seen him being annoyed, irritated or angry at me. But I had never seen him being this much _furious_ at something. I could count the times where he had been this much angry on one hand, and I counted myself lucky that I had never truly been the target of his fury.

The man, who was standing in front of my immortal mother, was something else entirely.

Something that I could not, for all of my expanded adult vocabulary, figure out how to describe. But What I did knew, was that this being was clearly dangerous – and every time that I saw it, my mind finally grasped the true meaning of Fear.

Somewhere underneath my father's laid back attitude, the man who had killed his way to survival through a whole world full of legends and Monsters was finally resurfacing, scars and all. The deep streak running down his face, the lumpy layer of skin that I always used to have fun poking at as a baby while he chuckled – that was nothing compared to the scores of pain and fury that was now radiating from his eyes.

Even after fighting and facing beings which are considered to be myths and legends; for all of these years of constant danger and survival, I can't stop myself from being terrified of the man who is Reza Dastan. I had seen this scene a lot of times and every time, and I always shivered when it came to this part.

There was something to be feared about the fury of a patient man. And if there was one thing that I knew about my father – it was that while he could tolerate a lot of things from me and let me get away with little more than a relatively painless scolding and a few minutes in the corner, driving him to his breaking point was a very _unwise_ course of action and most likely the last thing I would ever do.

It took a lot of courage to face the immortal that has domain over Magic, and it took a lot more to even look to her in the eye and demand answers from her.

"I haven't done anything to you or our child." My mother said with a neutral voice that was devoid of any emotion. "You should be proud of him, yet you're here, Crying and broken as if you're seeing his death."

Tears were now visibly falling down on my father's face; it was a scene that always made me feel like as if someone had punched me in the face. Reza was man of focus, sheer will and commitment. I had grown-up with seeing him as a fighter who always got up, no matter how many hardships and pains he had to endure.

With each time, learning from his mistakes and grow stronger as he moved on. But even Reza Dastan had his limits, and the line was drawn when it came to the life of his only child, namely me.

"My son is a demigod." My father said with shaking voice. Not caring how loud his voice becomes with each words passing from his lips. "Do you know the average life-span of a demigod?! No!? Then let me tell you that they'll be lucky to even reach the age of 18, before they end up dead in some monster's stomach or become another lost _pawn_ in the schemes and games that you immortals play!."

My father then started to mercilessly name the ancient legends of heroes who were known to be half-bloods. His voice dripping with power and so much fury that I could easily hear the roof slowly starts to crack under so much release of his Power and magic. He didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was yelling towards a being that could kill him with just a snap of her fingers.

"Jason the Argonaut – Setting sail to claim what was perhaps rightly his until he ended up in the scheme of immortals and Losing everything that he had because of his own actions and choices, dying alone in his own _Freaking_ ship, which became his own tomb," With each sentence, his voice rose exponentially. "The Great Heracles – praise – greatness – bestowed with so many nicknames and titles you'd be drown in ink if you write them all down! And what was his life? His entire life spent on quests after quests; doing this and that until later he died, screaming in agony because of the poisoned shirt that his own wife gives him!" He just kept going and going and going and would not stop. "Jack the Ripper – so completely screwed up in the head that it's not even funny– The son of Ares who killed who knows how many poor men, Women and children! And _don't_ even get me started on others like Vlad the Impaler or The Great Khan! Because we both know that there are far _worst_ half-bloods out there that even make them look like normal and _civilized,_ when it comes to cruelty or the _things_ that they have done! Because that is the fate of demigods who end up losing themselves and warped by the supernatural world and eventually turning into things which they constantly fight against! Becoming Monsters who walk around in human flesh, their mentality twisted and Morals broken because of the constant death and pain which follows them wherever they go."

With each word; I felt like the darkness around the room become darker and darker. And the Sad Thing was that every word that my father was saying was nothing more than _cold hard_ truth.

Words can cut or pierce deeper than any sword or bullet, and the truth pierces even deeper.

The life of a demigod was not rainbows and sunshine. You can't expect you're mentality to remain intact when you're constantly hunted by legendary monsters that come back with the passing of time.

The world of the supernatural world was a world of bloody evolution. To survive you would have to pick up you're sword and fight to see the next day and even then, you're survival was not even guaranteed.

Percy Jackson the greatest hero to ever live, Jason Grace the son of Jupiter or Thalia Grace the Lieutenant of the hunt. There are Demigods who their lives are far darker and more messed up then the trio who can be considered to be among those who had dealt with the supernatural world for a long time and had been in a lot of life-threatening situations that always seemed to find them wherever they go.

Demigods who didn't have a mortal parent that would be there for them when they are celebrating their birthday, Demigods who their lives were even harder than even Luke Castallen, Their desire to survive in an unending cycle of war and death against legendary monsters is the one thing that pushes them forward to improve and train. To live while a world full of myth and legends, is seeking to either kill them because of the fact that they had been born as a half-blood or to manipulate and use them for their own gains and whims.

Survival can bring out the worst out of people that you would probably never expect. Combine that with the environment that we half-bloods find ourselves in… well, let's just say that the results were not good for our mental health and choices.

"Enough!" my immortal mother's power flows over the room and returns the darkness to its normal state and return my father's shadow to its normal form.

My father let out a tired breath and sat back at his chair. His face and eyes looked so old that you would think that he's an old man, rather than a man who is still in his thirties.

"You told me that you would watch over our son. That you would protect him," He said with an old withered voice. "But do you know what I saw today? I saw my son Create his very own Magical Rune. At the age of six no less! My very own son accomplished something that I only managed to do at the age of twelve! And do you know what kind of Rune he created? The Shadow Manipulation Rune! A Magical Rune that focuses on the caster's shadow and combines it with the target's shadow and binds it to the caster's Will and provides control over the target's physical body! And do you know how he used it for?! He used it to kill a _fucking_ hellhound that had attacked him when I was at work and he was staying home! Used it to stop the monster from charging towards him and then used another Magical rune to manipulate his own shadow and turn it into a hand like shape which he used to chock the damn thing to death! And do you want to know the scary thing? He had said that he had been inspired to create his first magical rune, based on something which he had seen in some TV Show. My son is not even seven yet and He used his creativity and imagination to create something that can be used to kill a legendary monster or possibly another magician. And even then he still considers it to be _incomplete_ and _inefficient_ , I had seen that look in his eyes and I know that he won't rest until he has managed to master the use of the Rune _Completely_. Do you see why I'm crying right now? It's because my son already has taken his first step into the supernatural world, and god only knows what he'll become at the end of the Road."

And here comes the reason why I am considered to be a boogeyman in the world of myths and legends. I was not the smartest tool in the box; neither did I have much talent when it comes to other things like cooking or cleaning. But there were other things that I excelled in.

And one of those things was my determination to fully master and improve my abilities. I was not the most powerful demigod of Hecate, that title belonged to someone else, but when it came to mastering my abilities and using them with _lethal_ efficiency, I was perhaps one of the most dangerous demigods within the supernatural world.

And that is not a boast, it's a fact.

I analyze my enemies, study their behavior, and learn their weaknesses, Skills and techniques. Modify them for my own purposes and aims, and then use them to destroy them.

It was something that my father had seen, before I had even known that it was there in the first place. And it had scared him to the bone, knowing that his son was capable of such things before his age had even exited the single digits.

"Being a demigod doesn't necessarily mean that one will become a monster." My mother's words cut through the air like a sharp knife, I had heard those words a lot of times in my dreams and each time I couldn't stop myself from holding on to them as if they were my life-line. "Our son will walk with the shadows and will face many hardships like any other Half-blood, of that there is no doubt. But why can't you believe that he will one day Emerge from the shadows and walk into the light?"

"It's not about what I believe in; it's about what is going to remain of my _son_ before the supernatural world is done with him." my Father looked down to his own hands. His anger and pain had long gone and had been replaced with an old withered feeling as if he was feeling empty.

And then he said the words that had hunted me throughout the years to come.

"Those who walk in the shadows may as well become one with them." he said before leaning back on his chair and covering his face with his hands. "But tell me Hecate, What fate is in store for this one? Will he become The Boogeyman himself? will his life be viewed as The cautionary tale of a demigod, who treaded and walked in the shadows for so long that he end up becoming one with them himself?"

It was then that I felt myself waking-up, before I looked down on the shadows and watched as the dark silhouettes on the wall curl into a most familiar shape that I knew.

It was a dark shape that would follow us since the day that we are born and until the day that we all die.

It was my shadow.

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

Opening my eyes, I gazed to the ceiling of my room.

My emotions were all over the place while my mind was running and processing one thought after another, looking to one question and then to the next one. With each one coming and going, The Riddles that stranded my life seemed to grow and grow, despite the fact that I solved one after another. With each question that I answered, or with each riddle that I solved, there was always another one that would take its place and leaving me with more questions and riddles then I could care to count or answer.

Normally you can ignore the riddles and the secrets and continue you're life, if not for the fact that those said secrets and riddles will always find a way to punch you in the face and step back into your life.

No matter how hard you try, the past always finds a way to –somehow- affect the future. And most of the time, it did not end well for you. I had made peace with my past and had moved on, but there were things that I certainly wanted it to remain in the past.

And that damned dream that I just had, was among them.

"Shit," was the only word that came out of my mouth before I got up from the bed and moved towards the bathroom. I had my own fair share of nightmares and demigod dreams, and this was not the first time that I had to deal with them in the morning.

Opening the bathroom's door and closing it behind myself, I washed my face and then looked towards the mirror.

The face that gazed back towards me was not the one that I had when I had found myself in this world years ago. Instead of having light auburn hair and light skin, I now had white hair, and Light tanned skin colour. Stormy gray eyes looked back to me, and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that I was a son of Athena Rather than a son of Hecate. Additionally, I was a lot taller than I had been before, possibly 20 Cm. with an athletic body that came from many hours and nights of intense physical conditioning and exercise.

The ironic thing was that I knew this face; it was the face of the man who would end-up becoming a machine of death and destruction that is a counter-guardian. A man who made a contract with the world itself so that he could become a hero who is capable of producing miracles and save everyone, ending up betrayed by his own allies and then executed for the crimes that he did not even do.

What was his goal and aim? To become a hero who would save everyone, to end a war and stop the loss of lives and destruction. And look where it got him, it turned him into a counter-guardian, a being who has to kill the human at 'one location' to save the humanity as a whole. Trapped in an endless cycle of death and slaughter, with him being the destroyer and the butcher who would have to do the slaughtering and the destruction, betrayed by his own dreams and ideals and forced to face and oppose them for countless times.

Sometimes I wondered how I should feel about the face that I see every time that I look into the mirror. Should I pity Archer who end-up getting the text-book end of a hero? Should I Respect him for going so far for the things that he had believed in? Hate him for not knowing when to let go of his ideals and accept the fact that you can't save everyone?

Life was really a bit messed-up sometimes, and to think that I would get archer's face was possibly another twisted sense of joke that was in my life.

My current appearance was the result and side-effects of my use of magecraft. It was known that the extended use of magecraft and doing various experiments could have various side-effects on a Magus's body. Be it either physically or mentally. Magi hold them as a mark of pride that shows how serious they are in mastering and perfecting their magecraft and how experienced they are.

It was disturbing to know that how I had ended up with this face, even with the notion that my body had changed to the one that I had before ending up here, it was no coincidence. Seeing as how my own abilities and 'affinity' had even changed and how many obstacles I had to overcome, in order to master my abilities and even develop new ones.

The only positive thing that I could see from the face that I now had, was that I was no longer a third-rated magus who didn't knew how to even properly defend himself. I was now _Leagues_ above of what I had been years ago.

And I was proud of it.

Finishing my morning Routine, I opened the door and started to walk towards the Emiya household's kitchen. I was not a talented chief like Emiya Shirou, but I could make the most basic meals and foods. Years of living alone had made it an important Skill for me to learn and improve upon. I could follow a normal cooking recipe as much as the next man and make a few dishes and meals here and there but that's it.

Cooking may have been a necessary skill for me to learn, but it wasn't my strongest suit and it will never be.

Cleaning and washing the dishes, I put on a blue color jean along with a normal black color shirt and a Leather jacket. Putting my black shoes on, I opened the door and started to walk towards the destination that I had in mind.

It was an early hour in the morning and I could see the students starting to leave home and on their way to school, likely to a certain school called Homurahara, if I had to guess based on their uniforms.

The atmosphere of the city was normal and a little bit rich with Paraná, thanks to a few leaks coming from the leyline.

Fuyuki was the image of a normal mundane city and it was hard to believe that this city had been in all-over the international news and every News channel within Japan many years ago.

In the show, there isn't much attributed to the incident known as Fuyuki fire, other than the fact that it was the turning point of the life of a boy called Shirou Emiya. But in the real life, the incident known as the Fuyuki fire was a clusterfuck on so many levels that I can't even care to count.

Before the fourth holy-grail war, the Mage association and the Church both had agreed to supervise the Grail wars and enforce the rules. Both of the organizations were powerful and had lots of influence both within the supernatural world and the mundane world, so hiding a murder here and there along with other 'casualties' of the holy grail was not impossible for them.

The church might officially supervise the Holy Grail war but everyone within the supernatural world knew that the mage-association also made sure that the rules of the Holy Grail war are followed. This system had worked well from the first Holy Grail war and then to the second and the third, and it had been well-enough in both the church and the association's opinion But then came the fourth holy-grail war and it was a disaster beyond imagining.

Death-tolls, casualties and incidents that had been inflicted were simply beyond what it had been during the previous holy-grail wars. Never before had servants unleashed their abilities and powers in such environments full of population and witnesses, the masters had always made sure to pick their battle-fields carefully and away from the locations where there could be any witnesses or bystanders, including locations with heavy populations and residents, they also kept a iron-grip on their servants and where extremely careful when it came to them using their abilities to the full-effect. This was something that the church supervisor made sure that every master knew before officially acknowledging and recognizing them as a master.

No one could have really expected the fourth holy going as it did.

Reports of missing children, murder, sightings of strange actions and suspicious activity had been so high that the church supervisor had to send messages to both the mage association and the church, informing them that the situation had become so dire that it was simply beyond his capabilities anymore.

And as if that was not enough, the association had informed the church about an incident with a pair of 'military jets' due to battle between servants which had drawn the attention of the military to the Fuyuki city.

Naturally, the association started to act and come up with a good excuse that would justify the incident and work to make sure that the military doesn't find any evidence about what that had really happened to the two jets and their pilots.

And then the fuyuki fire happened and everything went to shit.

Covering an incident or two is one thing but a whole city being drowned in flames and so many dying and losing their lives? Nope, there was no way that was going to go under the rug or in the closet.

The governments took notice, The News were shot into the air like a rocket being released from a rocket launcher, The Japanese government quickly acted in order to send aid, medical supplies and personal to aid the hospitals and the injured. The military went to full alert, bringing up the possibility that the fire and the incident before it had been the acts of terrorism and terrorists.

And don't even get me started on the politics, politicians and other vultures that saw the incident as an opportunity for themselves and their aims/goals. The church and the association had to combine their resources and efforts and even then they barely dodged the bullet. The amount of favors that had be called in, the palms that had be greased and the bribes that had been given, were not a small matter either.

At the end, the fuyuki fire went down the history as the most dangerous point where the existence of the supernatural world had almost been discovered. I can't even begin to stress the fact that how many lives had been lost and how many more had been ruined or affected by it.

And more importantly, it had been decided by the association that the Holy Grail war would not be hosted within fuyuki. Realistically, the entire plot of the show had been just that. A plot that had been created for entertainment and the audiences, it couldn't have really happened because the risk of supernatural world being discovered by the governments was just simply too much.

If something happened, then not even the association and the church could hope to cover it up. Not after all of the things that had happened, not after the fuyuki fire.

That alone should be enough to tell me how much my 'Canon knowledge' was exactly worth. How many details and how many events had been changed in the fate stay/night? How many things were exactly different?

Those were the questions that I had asked myself a lot of times when I had seen events which were a lot more different or had different outcomes then from the ones that I had seen or knew from the show.

Having a good deal of contacts and a bit of perks here and there within the mage association, was enough for me to get my hands on a few classified information, and the fuyuki fire and the events that had happened after that, had been the first things that I had researched within the association's archives.

Still, there had been a lot of gaps and questions that I still hadn't managed to figure out.

The Ryuudou Temple was a normal Japanese temple which you would normally see in the Japanese cultural or religion. And if not for a certain event which included a certain caster-class servant and her 'master' in the show, I would have normally saw it as a normal temple and moved on.

But I had learned a long time ago that the shape was always different from the nature, so I had investigated it and had learned a lot of certain advantages to it. And if I was to describe the temple, be it both strategically and tactically, I would only say it in a short sentence:

Ryuudou temple was a fortress.

The shape of its structure might not look like much in terms of modern warfare but in terms of Magi and supernatural battle, it was the perfect ground that yielded a lot of advantages. The first advantage was that the temple had a deep connection with the Leylines deep within the fuyuki city, so it would naturally be rich with Prana that any skilled or tactful magi could use to perform their magecraft and abilities.

The second advantage was that the location that Ryuudou temple had been built was easily defendable both in terms of defense and counterattack. The higher ground made sure to give you a clear advantage against any incoming enemy or give you a good vantage point that gives a good chance to see any opponent that tries to approach you stealthily.

All that it took was a skilled team of snipers, a good sniping position and you could basically hold off a large amount of forces, or kill any master who was foolish enough to approach the temple.

The third and most important advantage was that the temple was a natural fortress against spirits and such. So no servant could hope to set foot in it without coming through the front gate of the temple.

There were only three servants whom I could guess to have the ability and skill to get through the temple's gate without being noticed. The assassin class servant that has a class-skill called the presence concealment; it allowed the servant to being able to remain hidden against the sensory abilities of the other seven servants. So assassin did have a chance at being able to infiltrate the temple and possibly kill the enemy servant's master. The next servant from the show who could get pass the temple's defense and walk straight through the main gate, was berserker who had a noble phantasm which operated as basically a 'adaptable defense' that can overcome a lot of things.

Noble phantasms were the crystallization of a heroic spirit's legend and power; they could be many things from abilities, items, curses or even a form of attack or defense. And in the show, berserker had been among those who had the most dangerous noble phantasm that made him a very serious/lethal opponent who had a chance to win the Holy Grail war, too bad that not even his noble phantasm was able to stand against a certain king of hero's ultimate noble phantasm.

The next servant, who could possibly hope to stand a chance of being able to breach the temple's defenses, was saber. The magic resistance class-skill did give the king of knight's the chance to being able to ignore caster's highly deadly attacks and facing the servant head on with a clear advantage against her.

So how could archer possibly get pass the temple's defenses, get pass the gate's 'guardian' and save Shirou Emiya from being killed by caster? The answer was as clear as the sun in the sky, archer hadn't gotten pass the temple's defenses through infiltrating it.

He had been allowed to pass through the gate's guardian's will and want, either be it for entertainment or for throwing a ball in caster's well-made plans.

One way or another, Shirou Emiya had been saved and so we learn that protagonists have the survivability of a cockroach, being able to survive despite all the odds that had been stacked against them through some absurd reason, logic or even impossible events.

But turns out that this world's version of Shirou Emiya hadn't even lived long enough to reach the point of joining the fifth holy grail-war, all of it because of one act that had sealed his doom, something that had been done by the same Person who had saved him and adopted him as his own son –Kiritsugu Emiya, the magus killer who his act of giving Avalon back to the Einzbern family as a way for his adopted son to live without being directly targeted by the ancient magi family, had been thing that had killed the Shirou Emiya of this world.

It all comes down to Shirou Emiya's self-made magecraft called tracing. Tracing is a magecraft spell which allowed one to review the past-history of an object. It collected the information from the object and then gives it to the human brain in order to process and understand that information.

It was similar to structural analyze, with the difference being that it was more through then that. And it also had a Dangerous Risk, seeing as the human mind had not been meant to process that kind of information at such a short notice. If you think about it rationally and logically, one shouldn't be able to normally use that spell without the human mind being put into too much strain and information overload which then would cause Lethal brain damage.

So how could one exactly use tracing without becoming brain dead? That's simple, it's by using reinforcement magecraft which focused on temporary enhancing the human body and physical capabilities to a certain limit.

To put it simply, tracing was a suicide spell, even by the standards that Magi abide by. And only a distorted fool like Shirou Emiya who couldn't put a value on his life, would dare to use such a spell.

I had thought and think about it a lot and I had come to the conclusion that the Reason why Shirou had practiced reinforcement to such extent and intensity, Was because of the fact that it was the only way for him to perform his magecraft, the only way for him to keep his progress with his magecraft going.

Except for one big fatal reckless mistake that he didn't even care look at because of his distortion of being incapable of valuing his own life.

Shirou Emiya didn't have someone who could teach him how to properly use magecraft and warn him about the lethal and fatal mistakes that were on the way, so he was defiantly bound to make a fatal mistake sooner or later. And the only way that the Shirou Emiya from the show hadn't ended up going brain-dead before the start of the holy-grail war, was because of Avalon.

The legendary sheath that was said to have the healing and regeneration ability that can heal a shattered heart within moments, so why shouldn't it be able to heal and repair brain damage –this was the reason that how Shirou Emiya of the show had lived long enough to become a master within the fifth holy grail war.

But the Shirou Emiya of this world no longer had Avalon and so he went brain-dead, the protagonist of what had been an anime show within a parallel world, died because he had decided to practice his magecraft one last time before going to the bed. I had seen the memories of this world's Shirou Emiya and I knew it had happened only an hour before I had found myself in his body.

But even with all of the things that I know, I still wasn't able to gain a single clue about who had thrown me into the body of a brain-dead boy and then possibly healed the said body. What were their motives, their aims and their gains?

Why me and not someone else?

Either way, I hadn't managed to gain an answer for those questions and somehow I had a feeling that I will possibly never will.

"Hello Shirou," a sudden Feminine voice stopped me in my tracks, one that I was very familiar with. "I'm surprised that you came."

Looking to the source of the voice in front of me, it took a lot of effort not to turn around and run back to the house and lock the door behind myself for good-measure.

Standing in front of the three graves, there is a woman who looked to be a year younger than me. she has dark violet colored hair along with piercing violet color eyes. She is wearing a dark-brown coat along with a white shirt and a long black skirt, black socks and dark brown shoes.

"Hello Sakura," I mentally ready myself for possibly a long day, and a tiring one at that.

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

The long traditional Japanese cemetery near the Ryuudou temple was not the place that I would want to go. After all, if you did not count my 'condition', I should basically be a Dead-man. Buried deep underground and within a coffin, just like everyone else. But yet for all of the hesitations that I had when it came to going to the cemetery, I sometimes find myself going there with my own legs and then stand in front of the three graves that are now in front of me. Where others would be respectful and silent, I would simply find myself…

Suddenly laugh or chuckle. And this is a laugh that comes with an urge to suddenly jump in joy and start dancing as if I had won the world's greatest prize.

And the reason for this sudden feeling was because of the names that had been written in front of the three graves in front of me.

 _Zouken Matou_

 _Kiritsugu Emiya_

 _Kirei Kotomine_

If there ever was karma at its finest, it would be this. Three _men,_ one is a protagonist while the other one is an antagonist and the last one is nothing more than a third-cliché villain and worm. Kiritsugu tried to kill Kirei while the sadistic distorted priest had tried to kill Zouken, now all three of them are dead, And buried right next to each other with Kiritsugu being at the middle, Zouken to the left and Kirei to the right.

And the best thing was that I didn't have to do anything, no schemes or plans, taking no actions and doing nothing.

Kiritsugu Emiya was someone that I knew how he had died; his body cursed from top and to the last bone. The curse that had killed him was something that came from his enemy Kirei Kotomine or from his contact with the Angra Mainyu, just like the Kiritsugu Emiya that I had seen from the show, but zouken Matou and Kirei Kotomine?

Now those two were different stories.

"hey Shirou," Sakura Matou was standing beside me as we looked to three graves in front of us, with her head Resting on my right shoulder and her arms around my arm, like a wife who is standing beside her husband.

"Have I ever told you how I did it?" she said with such a Casual and normal voice as if she was going to talk about something as trivial as the weather. "How I manipulated those two into killing each other? How I beat them at their own games and schemes?"

"I have my guesses," I admitted, "though I'll never ask you that."

I was not one to put my nose where it doesn't belong; curiosity could be as dangerous as any other weapon and all that it takes is one event to throw you into one big mess and with a lot of strings attached.

It is said that curiosity had killed the cat; nothing said that it couldn't do the same to a demigod.

"Are you afraid of what you might hear?" Sakura asked "or are you scared that you're image of 'sakura Matou' might be shattered into pieces?"

And then promptly, she answered her own question. "But what am I saying? You're the Steel Wrought Magus, the conman who has manipulated and tricked both Magi and alike. How can a liar and a trickster be afraid of lies and truths, when you manipulate them both for your own benefits and gains?" She shook her head before continuing. "But then again, to call you a trickster is wrong, the _death dealer_ is a lot more preferable. Wouldn't you agree?"

"What can I say?" I shrugged, "I Have a certain flair for dramatics."

As Shirou Fraga the Magus, I can be killed and forgotten like any other magus who was in the mage association but as Shirou Fraga the steel wrought magus, the Conman who had tricked and manipulated many? No, that was not a person who you can destroy and kill. You can break a man's body from head to toe; you can kill him with swords, guns and bullets but an ideal? You can't kill or break something like that, no matter how many weapons and tactics you have at your disposal.

Shirou Fraga the steel wrought magus, the man who his words are as dangerous as any other weapon at his disposal. The one who deals in death and destruction, this was the image that the world of magi and supernatural had made of me.

And the funny thing is that I never had wanted the damn thing to begin with, at first I had set out to put a good reputation in the mage association along with the supernatural world, someone who is both feared and respected. It was purely just to protect my life and reach my goals, nothing more and nothing less. But instead I somehow ended-up becoming this world's boogeyman.

…it was really strange how a trick here and there can suddenly make others around you cautious and fearful that they might be manipulated and dancing with the meaning of your words and the tune of your voice.

"So Do I," she looked towards the graves. "It had come from the theatric and story books that my 'mother' used to read for me before I went to bed." She said the word 'mother' as if it was the most disgusting word within the world. "In the school, they told us that our parents always love us, that they would protect us and be there for us when we would need them, and I used to believe all of those words. I believed that my mother would always there where Tokiomi Tohsaka should have been. He was the head of a Magus family, so I knew that he couldn't possibly be there for me. Not once did he spend time with me when I had been the top of my class. Not once did he come to my birthday, just a wrapped gift with the words 'happy birthday' had been there in his place.

"But when it came to my sister? He suddenly had all the time within the world, giving her a pat on the head and a kiss on the forehead, each time that she succeeded in something. And do you know how I felt? I felt jealous that Rin could gain our father's time and approval while I had to work myself to the bone and not be given even a second of his _time_. Every time that I saw something like that, I would ask myself that what did she have that I hadn't? Was it because she was a bit older for me? If so then why should Tokiomi treat her differently? Both of us had been average ones, Magi who had affinity for all of the primary elements. And the magus families would kill to gain such heiresses like us. So why did he consider her to be better than me? I asked myself those questions every time. And somehow, despite the odds, my mother would always see that look in my face and give me a hug and put a kiss before telling me that my older sister is the heir of the Tohsaka Magus family Crest. She told me that no matter who I or Rin were, she would always love us and would want the best for us. And I believed every word that had came out of her mouth with my every being. Until the time came I had been given into the Matous like some glorified Piece of furniture."

She spat on zouken Matou's grave, glaring towards it with absolute loathing and hate. But surprisingly, her voice remained casual and calm.

"When Tokiomi had suggested sending Rin Tohsaka to a boarding school, Aoi Tohsaka had instantly set her foot down and told him that she wouldn't allow it. They had this fight for at least a week before my father finely agreed not to send his eldest daughter to a boarding school outside of the country but when he had suggested sending me to the Matou family? Aoi Tohsaka didn't even raise her voice. She just cried and shed useless tears that didn't even help me to begin with, and do you know what she told me? 'You're going to have a bright future and will no longer need to look to Rin like that anymore because you're now also a heiress to a magus Family'. So tell me Shirou." The last living 'Matou' turned her head and looked to me, her gaze as sharp as any sword and piercing as any arrow or bullet that I had used. "What do you think about my life so far? What is your opinion about Tokiomi Tohsaka action, His motive and his reasons for sending me into the Matou family?"

"if you're looking for my sympathy or the words about 'I'm sorry about what has happened to you' or some 'I'm sure you're parents loved you and wanted the best for you' bullshit then I apologize that you're looking for it in a Wrong Person." I said bluntly before shaking my head. "Besides why do you ask the question when you yourself have the answers? You and I both know that the reason that Tokiomi Tohsaka send you to the Matou family, was not because of some crap about dreaming of seeing you growing into you're full potential." In another world that had been made of fiction, that reason might have been the real cause of sakura Tohsaka going to the Matou but in the real world? That was not the case.

"The real reason that he send you to the Matou family, was to unite both the Matou and the Tohsaka family into one magi family." I looked towards a certain old worm's grave, "and with it, secure the Holy Grail war, should he fail at winning the fourth Holy Grail war. Then he can at least be certain the Tohsaka will have the upper advantage in the next war, with this move he would been able to not only take out one of the three families who had rightful claim to participate in the holy grail war, but he would also gain all of their assets which includes their rightful command Seals, Increasing the chance of winning the Holy Grail war for the Tohsaka family by gaining another servant who would fight for their claim on the Holy Grail war."

I had to admit that it was a genius move and tactic; you had to hand it to the previous head of the Tohsaka family. Tohsaka Tokiomi might not be an average magus like his two daughters but he really was a genius.

"As perspective as ever," the violent haired woman put her head back on my shoulder once again, the act alone seemed to have calm her. "Though that plan didn't even have a chance to bear fruit, because unlike what Tokiomi Tohsaka had thought, the head of the Matou magi family, Matou Zouken, that disgusting worm-wasn't looking for an heir that would carry out the Matou family after his 'passing'. He was looking for a sacrificial piece that was valuable enough to use for his own ambition. And Tokiomi handed me right to him on a silver platter."

…I take that back, Tohsaka Tokiomi was the idiot of the century. He's lucky that he is dead; otherwise I would have killed him myself, with a fork and a spoon no less. Or even with a spatula, I have killed men with brooms before, so it shouldn't that hard, right?

"And do you know what kind of an ambition Zouken Matou had? It's actually funny that an old worm who has possibly lived for who knows how long, had been looking for something that is considered to be the most powerful force within the universe: Love"

"love." I repeated the word incredulously as if it was a foreign thing before suddenly I remembered the image of a woman who is wearing white color robes and has snow-white hair and red-colored eyes.

 _justeaze lizrich von einzbern..._

The homunculus who had played a key-role in the creation of the Holy Grail, the homunculus who had aided Nagato Tohsaka, the ancestor of the Tohsaka, and Zouken Matou. The Tohsaka provided the land that is rich with Prana while the Matou had created the system of the command seals, and lastly, the Einzbern who made the homunculus who became the heart of the grail itself.

Zouken Matou, the thing that had been once a man, had been in love with a homunculus who was meant to become the core of the device known as the grail itself, the ritual which is called the heaven's Fel needed a stabilizer, something that made the summoning more reliable and more stable. And who is better at doing that then the one who had been born for that single task?

"It's such a strange thing you know," sakura let out a tired sigh as if she was suddenly tired. "When I had become sakura Matou, I had thrown away everything that had made me sakura Tohsaka. My pride, my feelings and my hopes, Zouken made sure that there was nothing left for me but the path that had been made by him. And so I kept going, knowing that there was nothing left for me when He had implanted the shards of the fourth Holy Grail war. Piece by Piece, until there was nothing left of sakura Tohsaka. My bright future and potential as an average Magus was gone, my hopes and dreams had been smashed into pieces. My memories of my previous family had become nothing more than a torment for me who did'nt even have a single motivation to live anymore, each time I prayed that It was nothing more than a nightmare. A bad dream that I would soon wake-up and my mother would be there to hug me and tell me that everything is alright. I prayed that one of those so called heroes that my mother had read for me in those story books, might suddenly appear and take me out.

"But no one came, and as time passed. I learned the most valuable lesson that I had in my life. Heroes are nothing more than images that have been created by those who want to see world in some black and white color. In the real world, there are monsters that have two hands, walk on two legs. Hear the word through two ears and see it with two eyes. Those monsters were the ones who win most of the time in the world. And the reality was that no one cared about the life of sakura Matou who had been formerly sakura Tohsaka. Life went on and on until I meet someone who I thought that I would never meat, a red haired wannabe hero who couldn't even say no to those who looked to use him for their own gains.

"Shirou Fraga, the name that I loathed from the moment that I heard that you were dreaming and wanting to become a hero of justice. Another fool that thinks the world is nothing more than a few black and white colors. Unable to mature and see the truth that is in front of him, to comprehend that no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all. And then one day I saw you walking down the hallway when a student asked for you help and to my shock you answered with only a single word 'No'" she repeated the word as if it was something that she was proud off, something that give her something whenever she said it.

"It was then that suddenly everything started to make sense for me, Shirou Fraga the wannabe hero, was nothing more than a Mask that you had created In order to fool those around you into thinking that you're something that they can figure out. After all, you're the only survival of the Fuyuki fire. It was natural for you to be careful about making bonds with others around you. I had done the same for myself. I don't know why or the reason that you suddenly decided to do it but the moments that you throw away you're mask, it was like my life had suddenly changed. At first it was a hello here and a conversation there or two but slowly you started to change-the reason? It was because you saw through the mask where others only saw the shy and helping sakura Matou."

When I had been watching the show, among the supposed 'main characters' of the Fate Stay/night, there had been one character where I always found myself being unable to understand. It was like an irritating annoying mystery where you could feel that you had the answer at the tip of your lips and yet not being able to say it.

The girl named Sakura Matou was that Mystery. A mystery full of questions and un-solved puzzles, and it was when I had watched the anime Fate/Zero that I had started to develop my theories about 'sakura Matou'.

At first I had to wonder why the girl wasn't angry at Rin Tohsaka. She had become the heiress of the Tohsaka Family Magus crest while sakura had been given to the Matou family like a second hand-out. Every inch of her body had been defiled by hundreds of worms while Rin Tohsaka was reading books and practicing the Tohsaka Magecraft.

So how could sakura Matou smile and have a crush for a distorted idiot who couldn't even properly see and comprehend her life? How could she not hate Rin Tohsaka and treat her like a normal friend while she had been chosen over her?

Why did sakura Matou have a shy and pleasing personality while technically/logically she should have been a cold-apathetic individual who had been 'raped' by the one that should have been her 'own brother' no less?

How could so many things happen to someone and yet they still have a shy and pleasing personality and not have serious mental problems or issues?

And now, hearing those words and possibly finding more pieces of the puzzle that was the fourth Holy Grail war; I could do nothing but to review all of the theories that I had forgotten a long time ago, Theories that just suddenly made more sense and now had a lot more clearer answers to them.

The shy and pleasing sakura that everyone saw in the show, it was just a _Mask_. Something that she had created, in order to hide her true-self under it, to Remain unnoticed.

"You emulated me, didn't you?" the answers hit me like a train hitting a car, "you knew that I was the only survivor of the fuyuki fire and so you had wondered why I was able to throw away my Mask, to overcome something that I shouldn't have been able to in the first place. It had been the first motivation, the first step that you needed in order to overcome the mental conditions that Zouken had put you through."

"That had been a first step for me." she admitted, her eyes looking to me with an evaluating gaze. "For all of our differences Shirou, you and I are the same. Both of us had been nothing more than empty shells, husks that didn't have any kind of Dream or Motivation that they could theirs. With no past or Life to call our own, both of us had been empty since the end of the fourth Holy Grail war. That is, until you somehow managed to throw away the mask, which had become you're face, and be who you are now."

It was said that the flapping wings of a butterfly can be the cause of a tornado. For not the first time, I wondered how many changes my actions had really brought forth into the world. The day that I had went to the Japanese school called Homurahara, I slowly started to act differently then what Shirou Emiya would do.

At first it had been a thing here and a 'no' towards a certain seaweed arrogant boy who wanted me clean off the archery Dojo while he went chasing after girls, but now? I really started to think about how much consequences my actions had towards my future and those around me.

I had accepted that there would be changes, which is an inevitable fact that couldn't be changed, but to be the cause of Zouken Matou's and Kirei Kotomine's death?

And there was only one thing that I could say about that change: Couldn't have happened to better men. Those two really deserved each other, and looking on the brighter side, they killing each other meant that I wouldn't have to worry about any headaches or schemes from their parts.

"Of course, Zouken found out." Sakura's voice brought me out of my thoughts. Somehow, I had a feeling that I was missing something here. "Thanks to certain, or perhaps I should say former, brother-of-mine. And his action was as clear as the sun rising in the day. His solution was something that would make sure that something like that never happened again, by eliminating the problem from its root."

I didn't need to take guess to know that said 'Root' was defiantly me. If what sakura said is true, Zouken Matou wanted to get rid of me, so that he could regain full control of his 'pawn'.

"Naturally, I couldn't allow that to happen." She put a hand on my check, "I wasn't going go back to the 'sakura Matou' that I had been for many years, I wasn't going to allow my chance of taking control of my own _life_ to slip away from my fingers because of some old-worm who should have been dead a long time ago."

"So how did Kirei Kotomine factor in all of this?" I decided to spare myself the headache and just ask the question that I had been thinking about. "how did he enter the picture?"

"Why bother fighting an enemy when you could use his own enemy against him?" she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Really, all I had to do was to go to the priest and show him what zouken had been doing right under his Nose. You should have seen his face Shirou, I almost wished that I had a camera with me and taken a picture of it."

Kirei Kotomine's face when he had found out that he had been outmaneuvered by his own 'Arch-nemesis', now that was something that I would pay to see.

"What that next came was a group of exorcists and Magi who were sent to fuyuki, in order to 'apprehend' Zouken and bring him to the clock-tower. Though I wonder how they found out about the secret of Zouken's worms" she said innocently as if she was not the one, who had told them in the first Place. "And do you know the best thing? The Deal that I had made with Kotomine, in order for him to remove the crest worms from me and repair the damage using a certain number of his command seals, ended fully in my favor. With Me gaining what I want and the sadistic priest getting to be that worm's companion to the other world."

"And the fact that these three are buried next to each other," I freed myself from women's hands and stood a few steps away from her. "How did you manage to bury the two of them beside Kiritsugu?"

"Misery Likes Company, right?" she smiled like she was telling a joke. "I thought that it was fair that I burry the two beside their good-old Friend. Can't have them going to the next world without having someone familiar with them now, can we?"

Somehow, I had a distant feeling the said three were going to be causing a lot of problems and troubles in whatever world they end-up with but look on the bright side, they were someone else's problem now. Good riddance I say.

"Good story sakura, but I want to ask you something." I looked towards her and mentally ready myself for any kind of minefield that I might step in, "what's your motivation for seeking the grail? Because as far as I could see, you have everything now, the wealth and resources of a ancient Magi which can allow you to live happy for the rest of your life in any luxury that you want and with zouken gone, you now have the full control of your life and choices, so why do you want the grail when you have everything that you want?"

"There are two things that I want Shirou, the first thing is that I'm going to destroy the Tohsaka family." Her words were laced with such conviction and will that it nearly caught me off-guard, "and then I…" she paused for a moment before quickly walking towards me, her hands grabbed my neck before I suddenly found a pair of lips on my own and then a tong suddenly violated my mouth before I quickly came to my senses and forced us apart by grabbing my unexpected kisser's shoulders and push her back, "Want you." she finished while she looked to me with a longing look.

I couldn't stop myself from letting a frustrated sigh before I patiently took a deep breath to regain a bit of my composure.

"Do you remember that night? When it was raining and you came to me?" I didn't let her say anything, doing my best to suddenly ignore the image of a man getting a spear shoved into his chest. "Right there, in my own home and in front of Bazett, you confessed that you love me. And I told you, _Explained_ to you, that I can't return your feelings."

"You rejected me," she said, as serious as I have ever seen her. "And I told you that I Refuse to accept that. All of your rejections and denials, I _Reject_ all of them." I shake my head as she continued, this was going to hell in one hand-basket. "I have lost a lot of things in my life but _you_ won't be one of them. Why? Because if I lose you then I will be no different than from the sakura Matou that I had been years ago, I Refuse to let you go Shirou, because the moment that I do, I'll be nothing more then a empty husk, a blank slate that doesn't even have the control of her own life. I Love you Shirou so selfishly that I refuse to let go, it doesn't matter how many times you reject or refuse me. You will be _mine_ Shirou. I'll wait as long as it takes, until the day that you look to me with the same eyes that I look to you. That's why I won't hesitate." Her eyes blazed with determination as it bore into mine. "This is my second chance, one I waited for so long and I will not let it slip by. I won't make any mistakes this time by allowing others take away my choices and dictate my _life_ , by hesitation or by being cautions. I'll run full speed ahead until I have finally caught you."

"That's not love, that's an obsession." I reasoned while trying to find a solution to the problem that I had thought had been fixed a long time ago, "besides, what I have ever done for you? Why did you think that you're in love with me while you don't even fully know who I really am?"

"You're Shirou Fraga, the man who visited me every end of the week when I was spending my time in the mental hospital. The man who brought me to a physician and stood behind me while I recovered from years of psychological trauma and abuse, you're the one who did more for me then even my own family. And I refuse to lose you to that damned 'Mrs. Perfect' or that Edelfelt Bi…"

"Don't drag them into this," I quickly cut her off, wondering how the hell it ended-up like this. "First of all, Rin hates my guts and wants to have nothing to do with me while Luviagelita and I maintain nothing more than a normal Professional Relationship between two Magi. That's all there is nothing more."

In the show, Rin Tohsaka didn't know about Shirou status as a Magus. That's why she had reacted so differently when she had found out that he was a Magus but here? Well, the real-world version of Rin Tohsaka was not on good-terms with Shirou Emiya because of one single event.

Tracing back to the fourth Holy Grail war, I can see a little bit of hidden plot holes and one of those said holes was Tohsaka Tokiomi's death. I didn't know about this world but from what I knew from the show, it was Kirei Kotomine who had killed his former master and formed a contract with the king of heroes during the fourth Holy Grail war.

Take a guess about who he framed for the murder of Tohsaka head's death: Kiritsugu Emiya.

The Magus killer was known to use brutal and lethal tactics when it came to his own expertise of killing Magi, and shooting and killing a Magi while pretending to be in negotiations with him was among those tactics that had been used more than once. Not to forget that it had been the word of Tokiomi's former apprentice against the man who was known to look at civilian causality as nothing more than just 'statistic'.

The choice between believing which one of them was as clear as the day itself, though I also suspected that Kirei's position as a supervisor for the holy-grail did help turn the tides for him a bit more.

Either way, Rin Tohsaka saw Kiritsugu Emiya as the one who had killed her father. And needless to say, she did not like anyone who is/was under the name 'Emiya', me being included.

"Rin was always the one who would deny and hide her emotions," She said mockingly. "Oh believe me; I know how she acts towards such things. She acts like she hates you for Tokiomi's death, and that is true regarding Kiritsugu Emiya, but the one simple hidden truthful fact is that for all of her bravado, for all of her boasting and efforts. Rin Tohsaka is not the Ideal heiress that our father wanted her to be. Don't get me wrong, she has prodigies talent and is an average one. But when it comes to having the mentality of a Magus? No, she is not like that and will never be like how our father wanted her to be. _To be_ willing to manipulate others and use them for your own gains and efforts, that is the mentality of an ideal and perfect magus, and she never had that kind of a thing, and to be honest neither did I."

Suddenly, I felt a sudden sense of Déjà vu.

Unknowingly, Sakura Matou had solved one of the riddles that I had been holding in my head for many years. A Riddle that could have changed the course of the Fifth Holy Grail war and the make things turn out a lot more differently than the Anime show that I had seen from my computer.

Why didn't Rin Tohsaka use Shirou Emiya and manipulated him for her own advantage? She had been trained by a Magi family since childhood, and she knew an opportunity when she sees one. So why didn't she act on it and gained a large advantage in the Holy Grail and even possibly secured her victory?

She could have done it in a lot of ways and would have been the victor in the grail war. All she had to do was to gain Emiya Shirou's command seals or to possibly manipulate him for her own gain.

It wouldn't have been hard, especially with Shirou's 'want to be a hero of justice' mentality. Have control of one of the knight-class servants within the holy-grail and then have the most powerful servant-class as an asset. A lot of things would have turned differently, if Rin had done that.

She could have overcome all of the obstacles and reach the grail. All she had to do was to use her new-found advantage and asset to the full extant. She could have saber fight berserker and keep the mad-servant occupied while Archer would take Position on a rooftop within a few kilometers away, and then shoot Berserker's master and possibly defeat one of the strongest servants within the holy-grail.

The mad-servant might have the Ultimate defense noble-phantasm, but her homunculus master didn't have such a thing. All that it takes is a well-placed arrow and then suddenly the force of nature that is Hercules, the berserker-class servant, would be stopped and dealt with once and for all when his master dies.

Then Rin could move down towards Either Rider or Caster, and _both_ of them can be defeated with a good tactic and strategy. She can use saber's superior close-quarter fighting abilities and fight rider while Archer waits for the moment when rider tries to disengage from the saber and put some distance between themselves in order to use her noble phantasm and then it's the time when archer would attack from a long-range distance and kill rider using the element of surprise.

The Archer-class servants are known for their skills in the use of long-range weapons and Archer was a master-marksman and surprise was one of the most dangerous weapons of a Marksmen.

And then next is caster, Rin could have had saber fight caster. To call it a battle would have been an understatement, it would have been a slaughter. Because no matter how much magical energy caster has at her disposal, she can't harm saber because the king of knight's magical resistance easily stopped her attacks. Leaving her with no choice but to retreat or to possibly teleport away, and then when the servant of Magic appears in her location, archer would use a certain spiraling sword and shoot caster from a long-range.

Caladbolg would have distorted the air as it was approaching caster and the servant wouldn't have any other way of teleporting away unless she wanted to be twisted into pieces by the same sword's properties.

Rin could have used many other ways of defeating the rest of the servants by using Archer and saber for her own advantage, she could have even dealt with the blonde king of heroes by using his interest into saber as a weakness and trap, so why? Why didn't she grasped the _golden_ opportunity and secured her win in the war?

My first guess had been that Rin hadn't done that because of Shirou stopping saber from killing archer by using one of his command-seals, thus feeling of being in debt to him. My second guess was that because Rin had a crush on Shirou, she wasn't willing to manipulate him. But now, I had suddenly had an answer –from the most unlikely source- as to why the holy-grail war hadn't gone the way that it could have.

Rin Tohsaka was a magus with prodigious talent and abilities but when it came to having the thinking and ruthless mentality of a Magus who lives in this world and age? She didn't have it, unlike me.

"Are you saying that Rin Tohsaka, the _apprentice_ of Zelretch, has fallen in love with me because of something like that?" I didn't really knew what to think anymore because even after all of these years, I was still caught off-guard by the sheer _difference_ between this world and the one that I had seen as a anime entertainment. "That just…ridicules, it's _Insane_."

"Nothing about love is sane, Shirou." The Matou shook her head as if it was something beyond her comprehension, "from the moment that you set your foot into clock-tower, you proved you're self to be a prodigy like me or Rin, with the difference being that you were not a average one but that still didn't stop you from mastering you're abilities and even create new-ones based on your twin-origins, a rare-thing I might add, and then you started to climb to the top of the mage-association. Where Rin had gained her apprenticeship to the wizard marshal through her potential, affinity and talent, you gained yours through manipulation, efficiency and effort. Who would have thought that you, Shirou Fraga, would become Lorelei Barthlemeloi's apprentice?"

Instantly I remembered a sudden memory about the first time visiting London within this world. It reminded me of a half-finished honey-moon plan that I had made for myself and my would-be-wife. Going to London, see a few sights here and there and then have a few 'quality' times. I had even planned and made reservation for a good-hotel and restaurant. Of course that was before getting a spear into the chest.

Who would have thought that I would get to see London once-again in another world, the fact that possibly one of the best moments of my life had been turned into the most hateful and spiteful things within my memories and life, was just salt on an old-wound.

Memories were cruel things, you can turn them over and over again and you'll still find some edge that will cut you.

I was no different from any other human being when it comes to holding-grudges and avoiding painful memories. I may have been born from an immortal mother but I was still capable of feeling many emotions and feelings like insecurities, guilt, nervousness and Fear.

And seeing London and being reminded of a memory that was now nothing more than an old wound, was a hard-thing for me. And if I were to be truthful with myself, I never wanted to see or set foot into London ever again.

Naturally, at first I decided to occupy my mind and thoughts about my work in the mage-association and my goals before I decided to change tactics and do something which at least guaranteed that I didn't end-up bottling-up all of those negative feelings and emotions and then lose control over them.

It was funny that the most effective and successful solution to a problem was nearly always the most simple ones. Like going into your hotel-room and let all of your tears come out from your eyes.

You can ask every doctor who has studied in the field of psychology and they would say that we always choose to ignore our feelings and bottle-them up until there comes a time where we simply just can't carry the weight anymore.

I had a colleague who studied in the human psychology in my previous life and she told me to never underestimate the power of Tears.

And it was there, sitting and crying in my room that I resolved myself to face through my emotional problems and then get on with my life, because what else could I do? I couldn't exactly go to some physician and tell him that I was reincarnated into a world that I seen from the monitor of my computer. That kind of talk would have ended-up with me going to a mental asylum at best or dealing with The Magi of mage-association at worst.

Crying and empty myself that was the only thing that I could do regarding my condition And it was only after dealing with all of my emotional baggage, that I found myself being able to fully concentrate on my work and Magecraft.

And the first thing that I did was to discover my Twin origin.

 _Blade_ and _Rune_ , those were my twin-origins and my affinities. I had my own theories that I had gained the blade-origin because of reincarnating into Shirou Emiya's body while Rune was an affinity where I always knew that I had.

Being a son of Hecate doesn't mean that I'm able to use every kind of magic and spell without consequences. Using magic was like bartering, where you have to pay the price in order to cast a specific spell or ritual.

'Magic always has a price', my father used to always say to me. 'Be careful when you use it because sometimes the price is more costly than you might possibly know'

Runes were something that I had mastered in the previous life, spending years of hard-work where I perfected it and fully mastered it but blade? That was not something that I had worked with before and I knew I had to invest a lot of time and effort, in order to work with something that I have.

It was almost like having twin origins severely limited you're field of magecraft and advancement in the use of other spells and magecraft that are outside the reach of your twin-origins.

Naturally, I had worked hard to bypass that wall by looking into the resources that are at my disposal. I went and studied the history of the mage-association and the advancement of the common magecraft, analyzing and studying every spell and ritual after another and it was then that I ended-up stumbling on the answer by pure chance.

An image had formed in my mind, the picture of a long-spiky haired blonde man who is wearing dark-blue pants, a green vest with six-pouches in front of it and a long-white coat with the image of flames at the end of it, holding a tree ponged Kunai in his right hand and a spiraling sphere of energy in another.

It was the memory of a man who I had thought to be nothing more than fiction, a man who was said to be faster than lightning itself. So fearsome and terrifying that his mere presence alone was enough to make the enemy sound the retreat and flee. Regarded as a Genius and thought to be Unrivaled at his speed at killing.

 _Speed_ , it was my answer at becoming a Powerful Magus. Speed that would allow me to kill a Magi before he can even use his magecraft, speed that _will_ let me dodge and fight against vampire-alien like beings who are considered to be the pinnacle of their Race.

The White-flash, now that was defiantly a title that I would take pride in. it took years of hard-work, effort and progress but I finely managed to prove every Magi within the cloak-tower wrong. Rune magecraft had been something that they looked at as a 'Basic art' that can be used for a wide variety of applications and rituals but I proved them wrong.

I took what they considered to be a limited basic magecraft, into new heights and possibilities by proving that Space and time itself could be manipulated use the said basic magecraft. I created the flash teleportation Spell and even though my teleportation ability/spell was still nothing more than a pale imitation compared to the original one that I had in mind, and also had a lot of limitations and conditions set into it, it had been enough for me to prove myself a genius in my own field of work and defeat opponents and Magi who I wouldn't even have had a chance of beating them in the first place.

The White-flash had only been the beginning for me.

"Food for the thought, isn't it?" the Matou's sudden voice brought me out of my thoughts, "here you are, thinking that you have your life figured out, until you suddenly find-out that you didn't even knew _squat_ in the first place, It's really Annoying."

'Woman, you don't even want to know.' were the words that I had wanted to say, but instead I choose to ask my last question and end the conversation, along with hopefully returning to my home and eat something. Even squeeze in a few hours of rest before I have to get to work about how exactly I'm going to gain the command seals while the nearly all of the magi within the world were scheming and planning to gain them for their own.

Whoever said that life was easy deserves to be punched in the face because somehow -and despite all odds- I had a feeling that today was not even close to be ending yet.

"Sakura, what is the real reason that you're telling me all of this?" It took a lot of effort for me to not let out another tired sigh, "and not Some 'I love you' nonsense, because I know that can't be the only _Reason_ that you're telling me all of this."

"I said all of this to you so that you could understand."

"Understand what?" My patience was slowly crumbling into pieces and was nearing its limits.

"To understand what I'm going to do you," I froze when I suddenly felt my body freezing like statue. "You see Shirou, I already have enough opponents and enemies in the upcoming holy-grail war, I can't exactly Risk the chance that you might gain access to your own command seals and then summon your own servant and enter the war."

I tried to move my limbs but to my dismay, I found myself frozen like a statue. It was like that you're suddenly imprisoned within your own body and couldn't even perform the simplest task of moving your own physical body.

Something that even infants could do and I knew only one Person who could do such a thing, Sakura Matou, also known to the supernatural world as the _Shadow Queen_.

To compare Rin Tohsaka versus sakura Matou was like comparing the concept of quality against quantity. Rin was an average one who had the primary affinity for the main elements, something that sakura could not hope to match but against her former-sister, the Tohsaka-turned-Matou had an advantage that basically made her a Force of Nature.

Sakura's Magical energy Reserves and her body's ability to process them, dwarfed mine and Rin's by a lot of grounds. The shards of the grail that had been implanted into her by zouken Matou's machinations, had been the reason why her body had gained a supernatural level of Magical Reserves and procession. Combine that with someone who has an affinity for shadows and you have a powerful magus who can throw a very _serious_ fire Power against her enemies.

She can cast and use Spells, which would leave Rin exhausted, multiple times before she even feels the drain within her Reserves, Spells that I can't even hope to cast without killing me in the processes.

That means that the only thing that I could use to break free from a technique that is said to be able to even trap apostle ancestors.

I had to use my trump card, the one very advantage that I had kept hidden in the fear that I might gain a sealing designation.

"What makes you think that I even want to join the Holy Grail war?" I stalled, mentally analyzing my situation and looking for a way that would allow me to keep my trump-card secret and hidden.

"Don't play coy Shirou," sakura brushed my attempt aside like it was nothing, "you might hide it very well but I could easily see your desire for joining the holy grail-war, you're _driven_ by it. You want it because you want to do the same thing that I want to."

"And that would be?"

"You want to end the Holy Grail war," she concluded, "you want to end it once and for all. You want to destroy that damned thing because its mere existence has caused you nothing more than pain and suffering. You hate that thing with all of your being because it has cost you everything within your life." she then made a show of counting the fingers on her right hand. "You're memories and past along with your biological family, dead. You're adopted father who went through the flames to save you? Also Dead because of the stupid grail war and let's not forget about the future that you may have had before the fuyuki fire –all of it are now just Dust, forever to be out of your reach and Gone."

"And if I agree to come with you, then you would do it for me?" I put a thinking frown on my face while pretending to consider the notion, "would you destroy the grail if I don't join the Holy Grail war?"

"I promise." Sakura answered, "I'll destroy every last piece of it Shirou, if only you would agree to sign a Gias contract that you wouldn't join the fifth Holy Grail war."

And just like that, I dismissed any kind of notion of lying by saying 'yes'.

A Gias was a magical contract which bounded a Magi's Magic circuits to the words and letters of the contract. Magic circuits are the bridge between the physical body and Soul, to sign a Gias would be like agreeing to an oath which could strip you of your ability to use Magecraft or even you're health.

There was no way in hell was I going to be agreeing to sign a Gias contract.

"There is no way that I'll be agreeing to sign a Gias contract," I stared flatly into her eyes before closing my eyes and focusing on my inner world.

"Then you leave me with no choice Shirou," sakura said with an honest regret in her voice. "I really wish this could have gone a lot smother."

Instantly I opened my eyes. _"I am the creator of my Sword"_

Sakura was instantly alarmed by the sheer force of Prana that was slowly being released from within my magic circuits. "Stop it; you can't hope to overpower me…"

" _Steel is my body, fire is my blood"_

I could instantly feel her hold through her shadow grip tightening on me as she no doubt readied herself to brace for whatever spell that I might try to cast through my Magic circuits. Though that was impossible, seeing as the only way for me to break the shadow hold, was to either overpower the Matou or to severe the connection between our shadows.

And I knew just the thing that could help me.

" _Death is my shadow, Destruction is my light."_

The large wave of Magical energy that starts to engulf me like a cloak vibrates the air with energy and heat.

" _I have forged thousands of blades."_

A smile forms itself on my lips as I ready myself to cast the die because after this, there will be no turning back.

I was in for the keeps now.

" _And Here I call forth: Infinite blade Works"_

Instantly a large wave of light Engulf both me and sakura, the connection that she had between us through her shadow hold, was instantly severed. When I opened my eyes, I looked towards my own inner world.

A world full of infinite blades; the sky was covered by black-gray clouds and the ground full of small veins of lava that went through the ground as if they were a man's life-blood. There on the ground, countless Weapons pierced the ground like grave-marks. Each one of them was created by my own efforts and Works, each one of them were a tool of killing and destruction. Etched and carved by Magical Runes that I had placed on each one of them.

From daggers to swords and from spears to Axes, every kind of ancient bladed weaponry that mankind had stopped using since the day that it had created the first Gun; was there.

These blades were not the noble phantasms of heroes created through the core of humanity's imaginations or beliefs. They were not the forgeries created through a faker's magecraft, in order for him to be able to stand against the ancient king of heroes who possessed the ultimate noble-phantasm.

Yet, even with their inferior status to noble phantasms. I took pride in my own work and the things that I had created through my own efforts and hardship; I took pride in the fact that I was the true owner of every blade within my reality marble.

The infinite blade works was _never_ going to be able to compete with the unlimited blade works when it came to quality. Shirou Emiya's reality marble was superior to mine due to having noble phantasms within it, even if they are forgeries that pale in compression to their original counter-parts.

"…A reality marble." sakura Gasped, something that I took a very great satisfaction into, "How…When…Why…"

"Let me tell you a secret, Sakura Matou." I put my hand on the handle of a sword and leaned on it like a crutch, "Do you know how I managed to distinguish myself in a world full of monsters and Ruthless killers like Magi and exorcists?" I grabbed the handle and then pulled the sword out of my reality Marble's ground; the sword looked to be nothing special. It was a saber with a golden like handle that had a hand-guard on it. Its blade was covered by small rune like words and made its edges very faintly glow with an unnatural sharpness as if someone had spent countless times sharpening it. "I don't have Rin's average one's affinity and talent when it comes to use the primary elements, neither do I have your body's supernatural ability of being able to process Prana at huge quantity. So how do you think I'd manage to become who I am today?" years of mastery over The Reinforcement magecraft allowed me to be able to temporary enhance and augment my body both physically and mentality.

Reinforcement magecraft was a type of magecraft that focused on reinforcing an object's durability and qualities through the use of careful manipulation of Prana. However, the effects were only temporary and over-reinforcing an object could cause the said object to shatter or explode, due to being unable to hold too-much amount of Prana. The risk was even greater when it came to using on your physical body and mental capabilities but the reward was defiantly well worth it.

It could allow you to perform physical and mental feats that no other ordinary man is capable through. Such as being able to jump higher then what is normally possible for any man or to being able to move faster than the speed of a motorcycle or even have the strength to shatter stone with your bare hands. Of Course, when it came to me, the advantages were a lot better then what any other magus in this world could use.

The body of a demigod was not like the body of a normal man, our bodies were already superhuman. From what I knew about other demigods, some of them have already shown these traits.

Percy Jackson had been able to break the Minotaur's horn when he was only twelve while piper MacLean's body was durable enough that the daughter of Aphrodite was able to avoid getting all of her bones broken when she fell from a dangerous height.

So you can obviously expect that reinforcement magecraft did give me a lot more advantage then other Magi. Such as temporary enhancing my already superhuman traits into new heights, enabling me to process information at a accelerated rate or even being able to move and react quicker than even a Magi who has already mastered the magecraft and has reinforced his body to the limit.

Needless to say that reinforcement magecraft was among the few thaumaturgies which I had spent years to fully master and understand. Seeing as the advantages that it gives me was worth the time and efforts.

And it was the reason why my already demigod-enhanced senses and instincts, made me feel the presence of an _individual_ who was near me.

"Fear and destruction," Sakura answered my question; I could already feel her air around her starting to become Crack faintly with Prana. "It's not just because of your tactics, Experience or resourcefulness. You've earned you're title and name not because of your magecraft which focuses on projection of swords into the World, or you're Skills and other abilities. They might have been among the some of the reasons why others started to call you the steel-wrought Magus but the Real and primary _reason_ was because of the fear that you inspired and the destruction that you brought. That's why you were Bartalamo Lorelei's apprentice; you did things that not-even magi even dared to do, Crossed lines and morality that not even the hardened exorcists and fanatics ever did."

I could feel the presence slowly and carefully approaching me, but I give no indication that I already knew about it. "I have met a lot of people who keep boasting about their 'honor' and 'morals' Sakura. They judge me and my actions while also cursing me with the same voice, always saying that I'm 'Evil' and that I'm the monster. While the simple truth is that I'm not a monster, I'm the one who sees what needs to be done and what is necessary while they decide to hide behind their walls of honor and morals."

Many have judged my actions and called me a monster both in this world or the previous one, they all singed the same song but albeit with a different voice.

'You're a killer,' they called me because I had killed a group of mortal-mercenaries during the battle of Manhattan that would have killed the half-bloods, Men that had been promised with fortune or many other desirable things by the king of titans. If only they were to flank the defenders and kill them, regardless of them being the ones who were fighting for the survival of humanity.

'You're a Murderer!' they said to me because I was willing to put a bullet between a girl's eyes when she had fully lost herself to the immortal within her and had become a unwilling host that would have killed hundreds or perhaps thousands with her uncontrollable Powers and the urging of the Chaotic Demons within her that had turned her mad.

There were those who agreed with me and understood the facts and reasons about why I had done something that needed to be done. They thanked me that I had done something that they didn't have the stomach or the ability to do and there were also those who labeled me as a monster and hated me because of it.

Despite what others might say, the end did justify the means when the life of thousands and many more hanged in the balance and where in danger. But that didn't mean that I resorted to 'Killing' Lightly.

Killing was a necessary thing but it was still not something that could be taken off lightly, I made sure of that by exhausting every choice that I had before resorting to that option. That was why I had something that kept me straight and narrow, a code that I had made for myself, in order to prevent myself from stepping too far over the line.

Rules were what that separated us from animals and mine was something that I followed to the last word. Because Like my father, I was also a man of focus, sheer will and commitment.

This was why that when I felt the presence lung at me, I did not activate my saber's magical-Rune function and so avoided delivering a lethal blow that would have left a deep-cut wound that would cause someone to bleed to death.

'Windbrynger' was my most useful sword when it came to slashing and stabbing because of the runic arrays that I had created and made for it, enhanced its edges with the sharpness of the _wind_ itself. Because no matter how hard a material is, it is always vulnerable to a force of nature which is the wind. Its sharpness can cut the hardest material or even Prana reinforced ones, including flesh and bones.

The moment that I felt the telltale sign of blood-red falling down on the ground, I instantly saw the figure jump into the air with inhuman-agility and speed before landing in front of sakura with _her_ back towards her. She has long purple hair and is wearing a black color dress with black color shoes that fully covered her legs while her eyes are fully covered by a dark-purple eye cover. In her hands were twin needle like blades that she was holding in reverse grip and on guard in front of her like a X shape.

"Drawing my attention to yourself while you're servant takes up Position and Lunches a Sudden surprise attack against me. Very cleaver of you Matou, though you forgot who you're dealing with here." I pointed the tip of my now bloody Saber towards the servant standing between us, "I'm a former-enforcer, Did you really thought that an ambush like that is going to work against me? Clearly you have severely underestimated me and overestimated you're self at the same time."

"It seems I have," the said Matou admitted reluctantly with a frown, "If you can wound a servant, then I must have made a mistake when I was analyzing and evaluating you as a Threat. Perhaps I should I have proposed an Alliance Rather than trying to stop you from entering the war" She finished, looking to me expectantly, probably waiting for a clear and straight answer.

"You just attacked me with your servant," I give her a flat-look, "do you really expect me to believe that you're now offering me an alliance?"

"Who could have foreseen that you have a reality marble and able to wound rider? And while I admit that I had planned for a lot of things, that _factor_ was not one of them. And more importantly, you don't have choice but to accept my offer, because if we don't join forces, then Rin will overwhelm us both."

At the mention of her now former sister, Sakura's face soured as if she had just swallowed something awful.

"What do you mean?" It took a real herculean _effort_ for me to not face-palm, it was not even near dinner and I already have enough bombs fell on my lap that I don't think I could tolerate any more surprises. But it seems that my demigod luck decided to rear its ugly head and prove to me that, once again, I'm not out of the woods yet.

"The Ore Scales," she clarified, even saying the word was enough for me to guess that what had happened. "Rin has made some-kind of an alliance with the Edelfelt and _somehow_ , has managed to use their sorcery trait to summon two servants. One for herself and the other one for The Edelfelt heiress; And as if that is not enough, both of them are of the Saber-Class Servants."

There were a few moments of silence before I managed to organize my thoughts and recover from possibly the biggest surprise that I had since coming here an hour ago. And this was not the surprise that I had expected to face when I had woke-up since this morning.

It was not one that I could roll-over with, and it was not a pleasant one either. This was a surprise that came with a fat-pile of Lethal _Dangers_ and very dangerous _Consequences_.

"Well shit," were the two words that I could only say regarding this _disaster_ that Rin and Edelfelt had managed to bring down on not only themselves but also on me. Those two don't even know the can of worms that they have just opened and they won't defiantly like _what_ came next.

Even thinking about it made me feel as if a knot of fear had decided to tie itself within me. It is said that history has a way of catching up to you, and Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt just brought back mine from the grave.

Something that could shake the world of supernatural to the Core, it was a Nightmare that I had made and silenced in the crib and those two just revived it.

Sakura might not know how Luvia and Rin managed it but I sure as hell knew, and I also knew that shit had now officially hit the Fan at twenty five kilometers Per-hour.

"Does anyone else know about this?" the urgent look that I give the Matou was enough to take her by surprise, " _Please_ sakura, just Answer… my… question." I gritted my teeth and tried stop myself to curse so high that would make even a sailor's grandma blush.

Forget the holy-grail war, if I don't take care of this then not one of us will be even alive to even think about joining the Grail war; Rin, Sakura, Luvia, Me. We were all now buried deep to our eye-balls and there won't be a shovel between us and a very unpleasant grave.

"I found out about this only a few-hours ago," I sighted in relief with those words, because it meant that I had a small window of time before the results of Rin and Luvia's actions catch-up to us.

 _Why did you do this Rin, Luvia?_ I could help but ask myself the now million dollar question. _Were you so desperate to win the grail war that you were willing to bring down the wrath of the clock tower's vice-director on our heads and risk the destabilization of the supernatural world?... do you even know what kind of a mine you have just stepped on?_

I was now really sick of surprises for today, because once again they really showed how much dangerous and lethal they can be. Barthlemeloi Lorelei, the vice-director of clock tower and my former master, would defiantly be coming down on us with a lot of dangerous questions and heavens forbid if we don't have a satisfying answer for her.

And that was if we were lucky and she _decides_ to hear us _before_ sending an extermination Op for us.

Rin and Luvia might think that they have managed to secure themselves a clear advantage against other servants within the Holy Grail war–and in some way, they might be right but the cost of that supposedly advantage was that they had _unknowingly_ or not, signed every Magi's death-warrant within fuyuki city. That includes me and sakura.

' _two saber-class servants, another master and now the vice-director and political backstabbing of the clock-tower along with who knows how many vultures that are now working from behind the scene'_ I rubbed my forehead with my free-hand. _'Just wonderful, anyone else wants a piece of this pie?'_

And as if the universe had suddenly decided to add more to my already over-filled plate, by giving a call from my phone.

"Do you mind?" I asked, seeing sakura Shrug, I brought out my cell phone and looked towards the Number…

And to my dismay, I felt the sudden need to bash my head against something when I saw the image of an old man who has white-ashen hair and beard. Wearing old-fashioned European aristocratic cloths, black pants along with black colored shoes and a vest while his shoulders were covered by a short-black cape, in his right hand he was holding a cane that had a Circle-Diamond like handle while the other one was up with the thumb-being up towards me.

"Hello," I answered while trying to ignore the sudden miserable-tone that came from my voice.

" _Shirou!"_ I tried to avoid wincing from the _cheerful_ voice that I heard from the other-side of the phone, and the sudden influx memories of my time in the clock-tower that I don't even wish to remember. Least I want to Risk losing what remains of poor psyche and sanity. _"How are you doing my boy?_ _Did you like the surprise? Things are now finely looking up now that you have two sabers to deal with, don't you think so?"_

It took a moment before I suddenly knew the cause of the current mess that I had found myself in. "You did this didn't you?" I could stop myself from _imagining_ using Windbrynger to stab into a certain _insufferable_ Pain in my life that was the cause of most of my headaches and near-death experiences.

If I could have killed _him_ ; I would have done it a long time ago, Consequences and costs be damned.

" _Guilty as charged!"_ the voice on the other end of the phone admitted without an ounce of hesitation, it was like he was proclaiming and taking pride in his accomplishment _. "All that boasting and nonsense about the barthlemeloi vault being impenetrable, it took only one minute for me to go inside and leave with a Folder. Ha! Take that Granny barthlemeloi."_

I was not surprised hearing those words, I really wasn't. Because this _thing_ could enter dimensions as easily as I can walk through a door, it wasn't exactly hard to believe that one of the most considered secured vaults belonging to one of the most powerful and dangerous Magus Family within the mage-association, has been breached and stolen from by him.

At least now I had a chance of convincing Lorelei to not put an enforcer-contract on our heads, now the only problem was contacting her.

"I'm sure she'll be…" I trailed off for a moment–searching a word to describe how much exactly pissed off the matriarch of the barthlemeloi would be, before coming up with noting and deciding to settle for something appropriate and vague, "quite surprised."

" _Oh! She'll be surprised all-right. I'll pay in gold to see her face when she receives my gift."_ I knew that the former head of the barthlemeloi would blow-up more than just a fuse but hey, she's not my problem. If Lorelei can handle the clock-tower and the vicious cutthroats within mage-association, then I'm sure that she can do something about her grandmother. _"Anyways, I just called to check-up on you and say to keep things spiced up and interesting. Otherwise, I might have to take things in my own hands and I'm sure that you don't want that to happen now, would you?"_

"Of Course not!" I quickly answered, "I'll keep things interesting and…. Entertaining, but before you hang out, can I ask a question?" I knew that I was probably tempting madness but I needed to know if Rin and Luvia had done it willingly or were caught in this dead apostle ancestor's Web of madness and Prank.

' _Sure, ask away.'_

"How did you convince Rin and Luvia to go along with this?"

' _Oh,'_ there was a moment of dramatic silence which I knew he was purposely doing in order to irritate me and being his usual annoying quirk of personality. _'I didn't. So good-luck dealing with them, believe me when I say that you're going to needing it.'_

And then the call ended with a simple-click.

"Yeah," I lowered the phone and then let out a very tired sigh, "but I'm sure I'll defiantly need more than that."

With Mental-command, I watched as my entire reality marble quickly disappeared along with Windbrynger, Leaving me and sakura along with her servant to stand once again within the Japanese cemetery of Ryuudou temple.

"So," sakura decided to be one to break the silence. "Care to share, who was it?"

I allowed a thoughtful expression appear on my face while ignored the servant who was crouching between us and was ready to strike me at a moments notice, there was no way to soften the blow, so I decided to give it to her straight. "Zelretch Pulled a Prank on all of us."

Not a moment after saying that that, Sakura's piercing violet color eyes widen in plain fear while her hair stands up so straight as if someone had put her finger into a power-socket. I didn't envy her one bit because I was on the verge of panicking too.

Zelretch the wizard marshal, the chaos and madness _incarnated_ , was now involved in our lives. And we had all learned a long time ago that whenever he's involved in our affairs, we _will_ always find ourselves in such insanity and chaos that we'll be barely be hanging by the seat of our pants.

Sakura, Rin, me, Luvia. We all had our own fair share of experience with this bringer of chaos and it seems that he has come after us once again. And it will take every ounce of our sanity and every trick that we have in the bag, in order to get ourselves out of this Clusterfuck.

Feeling a vibration from my phone, I looked and saw a newly send text.

 _I'll be coming to Fuyuki city within the next week, inform all the Magi within the area that I wish to meet them all at the Regional Magus family's house._

 _Lady Lorelei barthlemeloi,_

 _The Vice-director of mage association_

"I hope you have a nice pair of Iron shoes to wear," I could resist the sarcastic comment, "Because this is going to be very long week."

I considered myself a patient man who could tolerate a lot of things but my patience and tolerance was now gone and I was furious at two _Women_ who were now the Reason why I had to scramble to make sure that I can convince my former master to not off us permanently.

Sure, they were tricked and probably desperate but that still didn't change the fact that I was now forced to clean-up the shit that they had suddenly thrown into my Face. I was a firm-believer in the iron-clad rule that if you made a mess somewhere, then you were the one entitled to clean it up.

You didn't drag other people into you're mess and force them to clean something which is considerably you're fault to begin with.

I knew that people would do many irrational and foolish things when backed into a corner, and I also knew that Rin was desperate and at her wits end to win the Grail war which had been looming over her like a haunting shadow but Luvia? What reason did she have to do something like this and let Rin Gain access to her Family's sorcery trait?

Either way, those questions wouldn't change the fact that we now only had a few days to get our stories straight and come-up with something that could save our hides and convince a women who was known to be as hard as stone and cold as ice.

If not, then we'll be staring death in the face.

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

Every big thing comes from a smaller thing and the nightmare that would later be codenamed 'Lazarus' had first been born from an idea –my idea.

It was inspired by the concept of sorcery traits. My fascination with the advantages and abilities that they give to their bearers; some of them being heredity while there were others who are/were unique to each individual through various means and reasons.

Sorcery Traits are considered to be special side-effects that come with the use of Thaumaturgy. The most general term given to special abilities that are somewhat related to Magecraft.

To a lineage of magi, their Sorcery Trait is a treasure as valuable as -or even more than their Magic Crest. Although a Magi family or clan has or possess inherent Sorcery Traits as the more common kind, those that are unique and innate of a single individual are not unheard of. Mystic Eyes are considered to be such Sorcery Traits.

My idea was that to create a special-rune made ritual which can copy those sorcery traits and give them and modify them for my own use and aims.

I didn't just use Runes for creating weapons and battle-purposes. I also used them for many scientific aims and researches such as genetic Manipulation and engineering or even medical purposes and enhancements.

The possibilities of the use of Runes were _endless_ and I was the authority of the subject when it came to it at the mage association.

Project Lazarus was not just meant to be a way for me to gain advantages which I could use to destroy my enemies or to even develop my very own brand of sorcery trait. It was meant to be the revival of the Magecraft and the opening of whole new fields of research and Magecraft.

Because if I could create a way to replicate and gain the sorcery traits of other magi and even modify them for my own purposes, which is-was considered to be _impossible_ , then what else can I do with it? Can I modify Lazarus to give me the traits and abilities of other supernatural creatures such as werewolves or even dead apostil ancestors, can I modify the ritual to somehow siphon/copy their Memories and allow myself to gain access to their knowledge and experiences?

The possibilities were just endless and the scopes of magnitude that the result could give were just beyond comprehension. And its creation challenged every resources and knowledge that I had from my Rune mastery to medical and scientific expertise.

I had lost count the amount of times that I had hit a wall or had to back-track and find a way to bypass the obstacles and problems but I had finely managed to create it.

I created the ritual called Lazarus, and it was only when Lorelei had slapped some senses into my head, did I found out what kind of a nightmare I had made.

In my haste to find a way for myself to become powerful, I had accidently created the worst possible Nightmare –something so dangerous and terrifying that not only will it shake the core of the Supernatural world but to also give way to horrors and nightmares that had gained a chance to become reality.

Greed and ambition were a very dangerous combination and every Living Magi had them, they all wanted to advance their Magecraft and reach their ultimate goal and Lazarus offered them something which they would kill the whole-world for.

Unlimited growth and possibility, those were the two ultimate rewards that Lazarus would offer; because if you can steal and modify things like sorcery traits which are considered to be impossible then what else can't you do. Can you create a whole new branch of sorcery traits and modify each of them to suit your needs, give you new abilities and augment you're magecraft? Can you steal the abilities and traits of other supernatural creatures and _gain_ access to the immortality of apostle ancestors, take away their centuries of experience and ages of knowledge for yourself and use them to ascend you're magecraft into the realm of true magic or even to try becoming a being who possesses the power of a living-Prana being like A Dragon?

The growth and the possibility were just endless and I knew what had to be done. I was not perfect and I made mistakes and bad-choices like anyone else, and Lazarus was perhaps one of my greatest mistakes of all times.

Even though it was finished, I wouldn't dare to use it because there was always the possibility that others could connect the dots and ask questions which can end with the revival of Lazarus.

I knew Lorelei barthlemeloi very well and she was not a woman that you wanted to give a reason to be angry at you, she's the vice-director of an organization that is full of ruthless men and women who can perform extraordinary feats that no ordinary Person is capable off. She had dealt with the most scariest and dangerous of them all in daily bases and it was something of a terrifying experience for me to see that how well _Lazarus_ can make such a women feel Terror.

I could still remember it; her face was emotionless and neutral as it had always been but her eyes? Those were not the same. Because no matter how you try to conceals you're face with a mask, you're eyes are always the open windows that let others see into you; If they had the experience and the skill to do so.

And for the first time since coming to clock-tower and joining the mage-association, I had seen fear in the eyes of the head of the barthlemeloi Magi Family. And I knew what exactly the cause of that fear was, my experience and years of politics made sure of that.

The barthlemeloi were considered to be amongst the most prestige and ancient Magi families within the mage associations. They had enough influence and power to keep their hold on the seat of the vice-director and keep their enemies and those who sought to usurp them back. Because it was common sense that the more powerful and successful you where, the more enemies you will have.

It says enough about what kind of a nightmare Lazarus was, if it could threaten and easily bypass the centuries of political power and hold that the barthlemeloi Magus family had on the associations, it threatened their control and whole Magi family's existence. The ritual's existence alone promised glory, Power and even the root itself.

The barthlemeloi were powerful but not even they can stand the _onslaught_ that the countless Magi families both old and new along with every Magus within the association would wage to get their hands on Lazarus. And that is before taking the other supernatural creatures into the equation who would want to use Lazarus for their brands of Aims and goals.

So at the end, before Lorelei could act and 'confiscate' my research and Lazarus, I Destroyed Lazarus Down to the last word and note. Because for all of her willpower and nerves of steel, not even Lorelei barthlemeloi was immune to temptation and greed, just like me; so the only way for to make sure that the nightmare was permanently silenced in the crib, was to destroy every last traces of it and replaced it with a fake-decoy.

Once the vice-director had 'confiscated' her apprentice's _Forbidden_ research and notes regarding the ritual called Lazarus, she put them all in her family's most secured vault and put the key right around her neck like some sort of a necklace; Unaware that the thing that she had taken was nothing more than a bunch of fake decoys that I had made so that to avoid Lazarus ever being used or re-created by someone else ever again. Sworn and even threatened with secrecy, both she and I agreed to one condition which both of us could never ignore or break: _Lazarus Never happened._

It was a question that was never going to be answered, a nightmare that was silenced forever and never to be spoken about again.

Although Lazarus died, it still affected my life and set in motion the event that led to my name entering the _black designation list_.

In the world of supernatural, there are individuals who are considered to be extremely dangerous and Destructive, Either because they are powerful or because they are/have something which threatens the stability of the supernatural world. When you're name enters the black designation list, then you are considered to be someone who is going to be closely watched and regarded not just by the mage association but also from other factions.

The association's first regard towards such individuals is elimination with extreme prejudice, but there are still those who their deaths are considered to be far more dangerous than them breathing and living. So they are left alone with the exception of their movements closely watched and under-surveillance. And there are even those who are willing to work with the factions and provide valuable services that other Magi, Enforcer or not, can't provide.

When my name entered the list, I knew that I had to change my policy to being Neutral (least I'll be ripped apart by vultures or sharks) and Lorelei offered me that chance to fully end my apprenticeship and set my policy as a neutral entity.

She offered me a job that was fit with my expertise and no one else could have pulled off, and I accepted it for more reasons than I could count. The bodies that I buried that day and the faction that I created through using nearly all of my political power –laid the foundation of what is now called the New Yggdmillennia.

The favors that I had amassed along with the resources at my disposal were nearly all spent to the last penny and drop.

This was the extent that Lazarus, a creation of my own making –had affected my life and had made my name known as the boogeyman and now it seems that the nightmare was back. Trust Rin and Luvia to manage to create their own version of 'Lazarus' through The Research notes that were just decoys and fakes, Speculations and theories.

The question that repeated itself in my head when I was walking towards home, as if someone had grabbed the controls and was constantly playing the 'repeat' button; was that how much was it going to affect my life this time?

Lazarus was the reason that Lorelei had entered my name into the black designation list in the first place, was it going to become the catalyst for another coming of the boogeyman?

' _Only time will tell'_ , a dark voice whispered in my head as I opened the door to my home before stopping as I saw a figure standing there in my home. _She_ is wearing a hooded bluish-purple rob, her chin and mouth are the only thing that I could see from her face along with strands of light-blue hair.

"Greetings, Lord Fraga." her voice was smooth and delicate though it held an edge of hidden cunningness to it. "I am caster, and I wish to ask for an audience."

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

I have heard a lot of people complain about the boring days, the days which they had nothing better to do then to sit in their homes and watch Television or try to keep themselves entertain and pass their free-time in some way.

For a half-blood, the boring days are considered to as valuable as diamonds. Because those were the days where you can close your eyes and take a deep relaxing breath while lying down on your bed, without having to worry about the troubles of supernatural world; the schemes of immortals or the vengeance of the legendary monsters.

Since finding myself in this world, I had found myself missing the days which I could live in camp half-blood and having a good time with the rest of my kind. I missed the two certain sons of Hermes who pulled Pranks on nearly everyone in camp and managed to find themselves in a lot of troubles.

I missed Chiron's lessons and Grandfatherly voice that instructed the new generation on how to survive in a world that was out to get them or provided me with advices that had helped my life more then once, I missed a lot of things from my old-world, but what I didn't I miss was the frequent encounters that I would have with the ancient figures of myths and legends.

Piper McLean had once told me about her encounter with the sorceress called Medea and how it exactly well it had ended-up. And now, I find myself sitting in front of the figure which can be said to be the ancient 'Medea of cloches' of this world.

With the difference being that she was a heroic spirit rather than a figure that had been brought back by the primordial of earth from the doors of Death. And looked to be a lot more different than the one that piper had told me about.

Don't you just love how flexible my luck is?

Here I am, sitting in front of a heroic spirit who I had hoped to never have met without having another heroic spirit watching my back, because while I might have forgotten a lot of details about the show and the events, I still remembered about the Servant called 'Caster'.

I couldn't exactly risk writing my 'canon knowledge' in something, because no matter how many locks and precautions is taken into account. There is always a chance that someone might able to bypass them all and gain access to the knowledge that I shouldn't have even possessed or know about in the first place.

And then the uncomfortable and dangerous questions would be hitting me like machine-gun bullets and then my life would be forfeit. The only safe action was that I would have rely on my own memories and hope for the best, I counted my stars that I at least knew a few things about the servant sitting in front of me with a Japanese table between us and two worm cups of tea in front of us.

"So," I decided to break the silence that had settled between us, "how May I help you Caster?"

Those words were the only thing that I could come up with that didn't Risk rising the ire of the servant in front of me. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn and having a woman who can use magic and lived in the lost passed age of the gods angry at you, was not exactly a good insurance for your health.

"Hmm," castor took a sip of cup of tea before putting it on the table, I couldn't exactly see her eyes or her upper face because of the black cowl that covered her upper face but judging from the polite tone on her voice, I would say that I at least managed to make a good impression on her. "So Cautious yet polite and humble, an interesting combination for a Magus, especially one with you're kind of reputation."

"I'll take that as a compliment," I replied before another moment of silence settled between us. Taking a small sip of my tea, I patiently waited as another minute of silence passed between us and then another one and another one until caster decided to be the one who will break it this time.

"Well," this time she said with an expectant tone, "aren't you going to ask the reason why I am here?"

"I want to ask but I'll be a terrible host if I were to rush my guest, by all means. Please Take your time." _And give me enough to time to think that how the hell did you end-up in front of my house and sought an 'audience' with me._ I took another sip of my tea before thinking about how this encounter could move forward.

When you're a half-blood who has fought in wars since he was no older then twelve and had enough life and death experience under his belt, you're mind tended to work around a lot of principles with most of them being battle and survival.

The mind of a demigod was hardwired for war and battle; we were the perfect tools of war and survival. Our ADHD and DYSLEXIA might give us problems when it came to performing academically within the school but when it came to war and battle? The deal just simply changed.

We were able to keep track of information and process it more quickly than the average human, The ADHD and dyslexia that we had not only give us that ability but it also Made it a lot easier for us at multitasking. Add our superhuman physical and mental conditions along with fighting skills and throw Demigod Powers/Abilities into the fray and one easily learn that we were not simple opponents.

My strike against rider and wounding her had proven that fact quite well, but unfortunately it was not a feat that I thought I could replicate. When rider had attacked me, I had the advantage of surprise and her underestimating me. Because by what logic should she take me seriously when she was a 'heroic spirit' and I was a 'Magus' far away from the ancient age of heroes and gods?

She had underestimated me and I had managed to intently deliver a shallow wound on her, but she won't be making that mistake a second time –Because even with all of my advantages, I would defiantly _die_ if I were to directly fight against a fully-powered servant.

The next time that rider attacks me –she'll be doing it without holding anything back, and I'll be overwhelmed if I were to even entertain the notion of fighting the servant who her class was famed to have the most versatile noble-phantasms within the holy-grail wars. And while the servant in front of me is a lot different from rider, she still was a _servant_. And every servant had their own set of advantages and weaknesses; I knew this because I was not like some Idiotic Magi who thought that only the three knight-class servants were the most powerful servants within the Holy Grail war.

Every servant of the seven-classes had their own set of aptitudes, abilities and Weaknesses. You just had to know when, where and how to use them. And a castor-class servant's advantages where in the use of Magic and Perpetration.

Close-quarter combat and direct-confrontation, those were the Glaring weaknesses of a castor-class servant. It's very difficult and hard to cast spells and use magic when you have an opponent breathing down your neck with a weapon. Not to even mention that castor class servants were not exactly known for their battle-experience and tactics.

It was just simply the age-old question all over again: don't accept a work which you don't know how to finish or complete.

And if it came to a battle, I would have to keep it to close-quarter and avoid giving caster the opportunity to focus and using her Magic. And I had just the thing that could help me with that.

"And also Patient," Again the servant decided to be the one who breaks the silence. "So Far –you are proving to be a pleasant oddity from my previous master, and I suppose that I could work with someone as well-mannered like you"

"I'm sorry," I put my cup on the table. "But you just lost me there, could you please explain a bit more?"

I defiantly did not miss the words 'previous master' and 'work with someone as well-manned like you'. But I decided to keep quiet and hear her explanation regarding the words that she had just said a moment ago, there was a lot that you could learn by knowing when to keep you're silence.

"Ah, forgive me." she apologized with a polite tone, "I Suppose I should cut right through the chase and explain the reason why I am here." she then took a deep breath, "Lord Shirou Fraga, I wish to offer a alliance with you, As a contract between a master and a servant."

At those words I blinked a few times before raising my eyebrow, I could already guess what had happened. "let me guess, you're previous master tried to get-rid of you and stepped over the bounds of the contract between you and at the end, you simply just decided to get-rid of him or her before any-other complication could Rise. Am I correct in my prediction?"

I couldn't see it but I just knew that castor was now looking to me sharply. "Patience is a virtue that I am well-acquainted with" castor's voice was now frosty and cold as if the words that she was going to say angered her on so many levels. "I have dealt with the foolishness and idiocy of men for so many times then I can care to count but when the man who summons me not only treats me with mistrust and a glorified 'familiar' but also dares to raise his hand against me and then sell my contract and loyalty as if it was nothing more than words as empty as air, Then Yes. You're prediction correct."

I could nod my head and at the same time, wonder what kind of a audacity did you had to have to treat a individual -who is a summoned heroic spirit from the age of gods no less- Like this.

It was not the first time that servant has abandoned or killed their master because of a slight or an action that came to a direction violation of either their contract, Personality and ethics. Servants might be copies of their original counterparts who were in the throne of heroes but there still was a time when they were like any other men and women who were born and made of flesh and bones.

The throne of heroes was a place that was outside of the boundaries of time, it was a place that these men and women had ascended after their deaths, because of their deeds and name becoming legendary for one reasons or another.

Servants might be copies of the original ones but they still had their own emotions, Feelings and Personalities. And sometimes some idiotic Master decides to step on them just because they can by using their command seals and forcing their servants to do things which they wouldn't want to do.

A Person can only be pushed and take so much before they snap and needless to say that those kinds of magi had gotten what became of them.

Einstein was right; there were two things that were infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And the last the one seems to be universal to boot, good thing to know.

"And now you're here, offering an alliance to me." I concluded before bracing myself for an answer that could probably decide and shape how the rest of this conversation will go. "Though I'm honored and flattered, I still want to ask why me and not some other Magi? There has to be other candidates that are more than willing to accept such an alliance with a heroic spirit."

"You're reputation with your subordinates and you're Pragmatic Methods are the primary reason why I considered you to extend this offer to you."

"Care to please elaborate a little bit more on that?" I asked while putting my left hand under my chain and mentally preparing myself for an explanation and debate.

"Certainly," caster replied without a pause, which was enough to tell me that she had done her Research on my 'Past', either getting the knowledge through her now dead master or through other means.

It was hard to guess, seeing as there were a lot of ways of extracting information from someone.

"Though I believe this will explain more thoroughly than any words that I might say," she brings out a Dark-black folder from her robes and puts it in front of me. The folder was as black as the night and on it was the Silvery-white image of a Cross with two swords under it, written under it in silvery-colored words were 'vigilantia fidei cognitione'.

 _Faith through knowledge and vigilance_ , I Mentally translated the words to English in my mind before carefully opening the folder…

…and saw a 3x4 size picture of a man who had light-tan skin along with silvery-white shortcut hair and gray color eyes, written beside the picture there were neat line of words written under perfect order and delicate-care.

 _ **Name:**_ _Shirou Fraga (formerly Emiya)_

 _ **Codename/most known frequently title:**_ _Steel Wrought-Magus_

 _ **Hair color:**_ _silver-white (believed to be the result of long-term use Projection Magecraft and reinforcement)_

 _ **Eye color:**_ _Dark-gray (also believed to be the side-effect of the use of projection magecraft and reinforcement)_

 _ **Current Age:**_ _unknown (speculated to be in twenties and near thirties)_

 _ **Current health status:**_ _Alive (at the peak of health-condition due to medical reports and analyzes)_

 _ **Registration code**_ _: sierra-626047117 (mage's association, former high-ranking freelanced enforcer)_

 _ **Current whereabouts:**_ _Fraga residence within Fuyuki city, Japan._

 _ **Blood-type:**_ B+

 _ **Written Reports upon full analyze of abilities and background checks, based on data gathered from the mage association and various other sources:**_ _Shirou Fraga (formerly Shirou Emiya) is a former-enforcer and apprentice of the vice director of the mage-association (Lorelei of the barthlemeloi Magi Clan) known for joining the mage association at a extremely young age as a enforcer-in-training and then later being chosen as a apprentice by the current head of the barthlemeloi because of his prodigious shown skill and intelligence._

 _Spending years as an indirect and unofficial assistant of the vice-director, Shirou Fraga gathered various political power and Resources which has been used for various aims and purposes, from sponsoring newly joined Magi Family to Investing a highly considerable amount of capital into various industries (mostly scientific research, military industries and various other trades) which allowed him to establish himself as a 'businessman' within mundane world. Known for his highly sense of business intuition and work, Shirou Fraga managed to establish a new department within the mage association known as the 'the association's logistics industrialized division', creating what many economic associates would call a 'modernization of trade and business establishment'. The successes caused the association's involvement with the mundane business world to become more direct and brought forth more stabilization to the association's finesses and economy._

 _Shirou Fraga's next notable act was the creation of the association's military Contractors, A division of corps which focuses on the use of mundane military private controls and mercenary units as 'problem solvers for normal problems'. Although not as successful as his first act, he still managed to gain the approval of the vice-director for its creation and the vote of confidence._

 _The next significant action of Shirou Fraga (which is considered to be one in the eyes of the supernatural world) was the Creation of the Steel Legion. An army of highly enhanced homunculi which have been trained in the use of modern warfare and combat from creation, Armed and armored with various technological and military weapons that had been redesigned and re-created for the sole reason of being more lethal and combating dead apostle ancestors, should in event they suddenly decide to join forces._

' _A notion that was considered to be impossible and unlikely at best',_ again a dark voice spoke from the back of my mind, _'Until the start of the apostle war.'_

Ignoring the voice, I decided to continue, if only to give myself a distraction against the damnable thing.

… _during the climax of the apostle war, Shirou Fraga directly led the steel-legion to the Ritual Island (located within a highly classified secret location within the Bermuda triangle), The resulting battle between the legion and the Defector's Faction, Ended after six-hours of brutal fighting where victory was archived with the full destruction of the defector's faction. (Various sources within the association, departments and divisions, believe that the homunculi survivors of the steel-legion have gone under-ground in order to replenish their numbers, whether this is true or not has not been confirmed.)_

 _At an unknown time and for reasons unknown, Shirou Fraga's connection with the vice-director of the mage association Became cold and evenly questionable at best, either due to the confiscation of part of his magecraft research or an incident unknown. It can be only speculated and guessed at best that this could be because of his half-sister's success of taking control of the ancient Germanic magus family, the Einzbern. By staging an uprising (again, speculation and rumors have been analyzed that Shirou Fraga was the supporter of the homunculi uprising within the ancient castle of the Einzbern) against the Magi family from within._

 _Shirou Fraga's last act as the apprentice and assistant of the vice-director was to fully take direct-control of the Yggdmillennia through the elimination of the head of the Yggdmillennia faction called Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia and most of the old-faction._

 _Using nearly all of his resources and political power, he managed to re-assimilate the faction into the mage association. As a newly political faction that provided sponsorship, scholarship and political support to newly joined Magi families who wish to join and become part of the mage association._

 _Today, the new Yggdmillennia boasts a considerable amount of political power and influence within the mage association, including financial Superiority then even some of the higher echelons of the association can't boast. While technically not among the elite families of the clock-tower yet, it is believed that the faction will join the upper echelons within a decade or more._

 _This concludes the current information which has been gathered through the various sources, more information and data shall be added upon discovery and analyzes._

 _ **Current Threat Level:**_ _EX-Ranked_ _(Extremely skilled and dangerous, Name has been entered into the mage association's black designation list archives, for more information regarding the subject's abilities and skills, please visit the deep-archive administrator.)_

 _ **Recommended Method upon the need of elimination:**_ _approach with extreme caution and the use of overwhelming Force, highly recommended use of at least four burial agency members._

 _ **Exterminatus order:**_ _inactivated_

Closing the folder, I looked to the image on the front of it before mentally shaking my head. The previous master of caster defiantly knew how to do his research, though how did he gain access to this much information and from the church no less?

While there are some Magus families that have connections with the church, not even they can get their hands on a file like this. The church prided itself as a neutral entity and front; there was no way that they were going to risk ruining their image and political face by allowing any Magi family regardless of the name and influence, to directly gain access this amount of information and deep archive files.

If the information in front of me got out, then a lot of fires are going to be lit under many chairs and none was going to be good for the political face and reputation of the church. And while some might claim that this was a fabricated attempt to attack the church's PR, the sigil belonging to the church's deep archive administrator could easily counter that argument.

Normally, I could use this to carefully maneuver and earn myself a few favors from the church but the fact was that this was my _file_ to begin with. I couldn't risk the information in it going public in the supernatural world, least I'll be forced to deal with a lot of wannabe-opportunists Magi who think that they can use this against me.

"I fucking hate Tuesdays," I couldn't stop myself from uttering those words, "Shit always gets complicated."

Never the less, I decided to make the best of what I have.

One such thing was earning caster's trust, I Wouldn't make the same mistakes that her previous master did and right now, I had my work cut out for me.

"Let me be frank with you caster," I decided to carefully choose my words, "I have decided to accept you're proposal for an alliance, however I have to make things a bit more clear, least we risk having a misunderstanding about our contract." Seeing having her full attention, I decided to start with the most delicate subject.

"First of all; if we are to have a chance to win the war, then we'll need to trust each other and that takes a considerable amount of time and effort. I'm not going to start some bullshit speech about the importance of corporation and teamwork, because we both know that you're previous master has all but ruined you're trust regarding having another master, so I'm willing to make a compromise and become you're anchor to this world and even settle for _one_ command seal if you're Willing to agree to it."

Trust was a two-way street, if you wanted someone to trust you then you'll also have to take the steps when it's your turn and seeing as caster didn't exactly have a good-memorable experience when it came to having a master, I decided to take the initiative.

I'll also have to make a few precautions, if the servant in front of me decided to abuse the opportunity and trust.

"The next thing that I should make clear about our contract is that I won't be treating you as a servant." I raise my hand and stopped her from speaking before I lowered it and continued. "You're an individual who has become a legend and ascended into the throne of heroes, to even call you a 'servant' is a direct insult and we both know that we can't have that when were against other heroic spirits and their 'masters.'" I said the word 'master' with distaste, let other Magi call their summoned heroic spirit's 'servants' and themselves 'masters'. I'm not gonna risk stepping into that trap and then having an angry servant to deal with who thinks that I have insulted their pride directly or even indirectly. "I'll be treating you as an equal, value you're talents and opinions and listen to your words. If we're going to take any action when it comes to the war, we'll be doing it together. That means that you and I will be devising our tactics together. Are those conditions acceptable to you caster?"

There was a moment of silence and it honestly felt like a eternity for me before caster broke it like the one before, though rather than using words, she decided to use action. Moving her right hand forward, she put it on my right and then I felt a small faint burning sensation on my hand.

"I, caster, accept you're conditions." She lifted her hand and I saw a red 'I' like image on my hand.

It was a command seal, my very own one.

"It formerly belonged to my previous master, but I believe it suits you far more better than him." caster nodded in what I guessed to be approval before her body slowly started to dematerialized in a wave of dark-blue mana, "I'll be looking forward to working with you, Shirou Fraga."

"Me too Caster," I Watched as the servant vanished and I felt a sudden connection at the back of my mind, it was a bit destabilized but I managed to make it a bit more stronger by slowly and carefully feeding mana into it.

"Me too," I repeated the words and looked towards the file in front of me, now how can I use this to my advantage and with maximum gain?

 _ **XX~XoX~XX**_

With a sigh, you leaned back against you're chair and let out a deep breath.

Despite what others might say, writing a time-skip and filling those nasty plot holes was not a easy thing to do, you had seen other authors and fan fiction writers make their own share of mistakes and such but you suddenly couldn't stop you're self from respecting them for their efforts and Their iron will of not giving up.

It had taken you writing and changing this chapter for at least three times, before you were even satisfied with the outcome and now after re-reading it for possibly the second time; you could defiantly say that you were proud of it. Not all authors could say that they had written a chapter this much and put even so much effort into it, if you didn't count those who by now probably had twice the experience and work-ethic then you had.

You're first fan fiction had not been successful so you had decided to erase it and instead replace it with the reincarnation cycle. It was a hard and tough choice to make but it was certainly worth it and there was no way that you were willing to give-up on this work.

You had put your soul and time into this and you were proud of the fact that you had written you're first possibly longest chapter which reached 25,000 Words. There was still a very long way to go but you couldn't ignore the feeling of suddenly managing to take the first-step of becoming a successful and professional writer.

"Are you finished?" you couldn't stop you're self from flinching when you heard the old-grandfatherly like voice. "Because if you are, then we can finely finish this business and I'll be on my merry way until the next time."

You looked to the source of the voice, sitting there on your bed as if he owned the damn thing. You still couldn't believe that he was _Fucking_ -Real.

"Yes, Lord Zelretch." You took comfort in the fact that you're voice did not sutured because honestly, Zelretch was a character who was a work of fiction. He shouldn't be real, yet he's sitting there on your bed as if he had been there all time.

When you woke-up this morning, you nearly had a heart-attack when you saw him standing beside you're bed with a bored expression. Naturally, you had tried to punch him and then call the police, if it wasn't for the fact that you had screamed in pain at the top of your lungs when you had hit his jaw with your fist and felt as if you were punching a wall-made of reinforced titanium steel.

All the logical parts of your self are telling that you had probably eaten too much last night and were still sleeping and dreaming in the bed, but the pain in your hand the details of this was… just too real to be a Dream. The Details were clear like a crystal, and while you knew that you had a good sense of imagination, you didn't think that it would possibly be this much.

Eliminate and analyze the facts and suddenly you had the truth thrust upon you. Comprehending and understanding it, now that was a whole different matter.

"Are you finished dealing with your inner dilemma?" Once again Zelretch's voice brings you out of your thoughts, "I'm a busy individual, and I have places to be and things to do. So pay attention or face the consequences because I don't enjoy repeating myself."

This time you just _knew_ that you were treading on a thin Rope, and there was no room for error. Being born in the Middle East and within a third-world country, had taught you a lot of lessons.

There were four iron-clad rules that no one had ever told you about but you could simply just pick-them up like everyone else and they were simple. They were the rules that you had to follow not just because of necessity but also because of self-preservation.

Be adaptable, flexible, know when to keep your head down and you're mouth shut.

Those were the rules that many _would_ easily learn when they were born in the Middle East (those who didn't learn, ended up paying a lot of prices.) and you knew those lessons quite well. So you give the _thing_ that was now sitting on your bed, the undivided attention that he wanted.

"Good, at least you learn faster then some." Zelretch complemented before continuing, "Now listen carefully, the information that I'm going to reveal to you is highly sensitive and can cause a lot of changes to your life. How do you deal with it is up to you and only you. I wouldn't recommend revealing it to others. Least you want to be branded as a lunatic or end-up in some other unsavory places."

You didn't trust your voice, so you decided to answer with a nod.

"Now that's a good head that you have on your shoulder, hopefully you'll keep using It." he clapped his hands before taking a deep breath as if he was going to lecture a student, "now, let's start with a simple question. What do you know of the multiverse theory?"

"That there are unlimited worlds and dimensions out there that are either parallel or alternative to our own?" you carefully chose the words and leaved a lot of rooms for yourself to change your answer, a vague answer was always the most very flexible and changeable answer.

"Precisely," he nods in approval, "The Multiverse is filled countless worlds, each of them different and unique from each other. Now, between these dimensions and worlds, there is a place that is outside of the limitations of reality or the boundaries of physical world. That place is called the multiverse Gap; do you understand me so far?"

Again you could numbly nod you're head; you pushed any doubt or answer at the back of your mind and kept them to yourself. You left hand was already within a bucket filled with ice, you didn't want to know what else can be put there.

"Good, now the multiverse gap is a very mysterious and special place. One that not even I Am fully aware of its effects and capabilities but what I do know is the existence of World seers, People who possess a subconscious connection with the gap" he points his finger towards you, "People like you."

You blinked a few times before carefully pointing it at you're self, Zelretch must have heard you're un-asked question.

"Ideas suddenly forming within your mind, pieces of information that you shouldn't have possessed in the first place," he waved his hand as if he was explaining a simple concept to a child. "Surprise, It's not your imagination at work, it's you connection with the multiverse gap that keeps you these ideas." He then pointed towards your computer, "that chapter that you just wrought along with the previous one, they were inspired by your ideas, imaginations and the information flowing into your mind, thanks to the gap."

There was a moment of stretched silence between you two, you're world was suddenly just turned upside down and didn't make an ounce of reason and sense. Nonetheless, you managed to bring out the words out your mouth, if not barely.

"So 'world-seers' are people who have a connection with the multiverse gap," you said the words as if they were the most foreign thing that you had ever seen to begin with, "The Connection gives them ideas, inspirations and information which is possibly Real in some other Dimension or world…" you trailed off as the effects and revelations of Zelretch's words suddenly hit you with the speed of a Train.

If the multiverse gap and the multiverse Theory were real, then did that mean that the worlds that you thought to be nothing more than fictions and works were probably real and somewhere out there within the multiverse?

Instantly, the name of anime, books and movies that you had seen/read before, started to come to the front of your mind.

Worlds like Naruto, fate stay night, Percy Jackson, John wick or even Warhammer 40k. They were real and somewhere out there in the multiverse. And you had a sub-conscious connection with a place that could give you constant information about it.

"God help me," you're voice was faint and you had a feeling that you're skin was now as pale as it could get, "I'm so fucked."

"that you are," Zelretch confirmed it with a smile on his face as if he was watching a first-rate comedy show, you would have punched him in the face if it weren't for the fact that you're left hand was now in the ice. "Who knows how many side-effects the human brain can suffer due to connection with the multiverse gap, which is before mentioning the un-healthy attentions that you can gain because of other _beings_."

"Okay, time-out." You put your hands up as if to signal 'full stop'. "What do you mean by 'other beings' and their attentions? And for the love of god, _please_ tell me that there is way for my mind to remain intact and not…" you didn't want to finish the sentence, because you didn't want to think about it for now. Desperation and hope were the only things that were clinging to your voice now.

"I'm not the only one who can travel between dimensions and the multiverse," Zelretch's voice was now grave and serious, devoid of any mirth that it had a few moments ago. "You should know this by now; there are always things that are more powerful and terrifying then you. And the only thing that you can do is to keep your head down and pray that they don't pay attention to you. And as for your second questions…" he once again waved his hand towards your computer, "the solution is right in front of you." looking to you for a moment, he then shock his head and decided to elaborate.

"The information that you're given through you're connect with the gap, it's special and dangerous at the same time. You can't forget it no matter how much time passes and how many times you try to. The only way for you to avoid becoming mad and you're mind being broken by the sudden influx of information, is to write it down. Such as the chapter that you had just finished," he leveled a serious look to you, "trust my words when I say to you that you absolutely _don't_ want this information within your head for too long, many have tried before you and it had never ended-well for them." he shook his head before his infatuating grin suddenly made itself back on his face, "on the other-hand, you started a very interested thing here. I'll by lying if I say that I wasn't interested in seeing how it goes."

You winced at the pain that shot throughout your arm from you're injured hand before you suddenly had an idea. "So I Just have to write it all down on a paper and then burn it, that way I'll be safe, right?" taking Zelretch's silence and now blank face as a answer, you nodded to yourself…

…Before you suddenly felt a hand on your shoulder and found two blood-red eyes looking deep to your eyes.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find entertainment and something that interests you when you're an immortal?" it took for you a moment to know that the voice belonged to no one else but Zelretch, his face was uncomfortably close to yours. "Do you?"

"N-no," you answered while trying to make a few space between you're self and the _monster_ that was now in front of you. Unfortunately, the hand on your shoulder kept its steel-grip and prevented you from doing so.

"It's insanely hard!" you flinched at the shout, "it's harder and even rarer as you want it to be, do you know how maddening it is to find something that can get you going and moving when you have all the time in the universe and the multiverse? Here I am. Warning you about the dangers that you're status brings, and you repay me by taking one of the few sources of interests and entertainment within my Immortal life!?"

"C-correction, Correction!" you quickly say and listen to every instinct within, "I'll W-write it all down on paper and Th-then make it a chapter!" You quickly nod, "I'll even throw in a lot of extra words and scenes just for you!"

"You'll continue the reincarnation cycle?" Zelretch deadpanned, which you quickly, you're neck is going to have a moving-problem at this rate.

"To the last chapter and word!" you quickly answer.

"You'll tweak the words and make it more entertaining and interesting?"

"I-I even have special projects about it!" you were grasping at every straw, "Inspiration for more works, Projects or even more plots, other characters or even other reincarnation cycles!"

"Hmm," Zelretch rubbed his chin with his free hand before nodding. "Glade to see that we can come to an understanding." He then took his hand from your shoulder and got up, "now could you please turn around?" without hesitation, you turned around and waited…

Moments past before you hesitantly turned around and blinked a few times as you saw no one standing in your room but you're self.

"Um… Lord Zelretch?" you hesitantly called out and waited for an answer, getting none, you let out a deep breath.

Feeling something wet between your legs, you looked down. Somewhere down the line, you had lost the control of your morning bowls and the results were now in front of you.

"Just fucking perfect," you muttered and looked to your injured hand and now you're wet pants. The evidences that you were not sleep and were fully awake.

Getting up and grabbing the bucket full of ice with your healthy hand, you left the room and looked towards your computer which still was showing the chapter that you had just finished on the Microsoft office word program.

With your mind full of questions and claims of insanity, you resolved you're self to add you're now 'recent' conversation to the chapter that you were going to post for the reincarnation cycle. If what you had just heard from Zelretch, was not the result of your Imagination then there were other 'world-seers' like you. And as much as you want to avoid the risk, you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't at least warn them about the consequences.

 _I'll put it all at the end of the chapter,_ you thought before closing your eyes and taking a deep calming breath, _then it's out of my hands and it's up to them to believe it or not._

Opening your eyes, you left your room. You had underwear and pants to change, a doctor to see and painkillers and aspirin to buy, not to mention a lot of things to think about.


	3. Chapter 2: A Very Long Tuesday

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Fate stay night, Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the heroes of Olympus and other works.

 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

 _ **Chapter 2**_

There were a lot of things that I hated in my life; but what I hated the most was to find myself becoming a pawn at somebody else's schemes and Games.

It was the reason why I didn't like immortals one bit. They plotted and schemed and it was up to us mortals to pick-up the pieces at the end. Most of the time, we were also the ones who had to pay the price for those said schemes. The cheapest price being one of your limbs and the highest being you're life or something very precious to you.

Like any other demigod schmuck, I had my own share of experience regarding immortals and their so called plans and plots. And I Really _hated_ it.

I won't deny that I have lied, cheated and manipulated others for many goals and reasons. I'll be a very big hypocrite if I denied that truth but the difference between me and the immortal manipulators, was that those who I had manipulated and used, _were_ the Ones who sought to do the same to me.

The Einzbern family was the perfect example of this.

Since the time that I had joined the mage-association, the ancient Germanic family always made it their business to throw stones in my way and make my life harder by any means that they could. After becoming the apprentice of the vice-director, they instantly knew that they couldn't act directly least they risk retaliation from the head of the Barthlemeloi Family –So rather than targeting me, they decide to 'subtly' target my assets and associates.

What was the reason for their attempts and their actions against me? It was because the Einzbern wanted to make an example of me.

They wanted to point their fingers and say that this is what happens when you decide to betray us and go against us. It didn't take a genius to know that they wanted to make me pay because of Kiritsugu Emiya's betrayal.

The only reason that I gritted my teeth and tolerated it all was because of the safety of one simple precious thing which Kiritsugu Emiya left behind: his biological daughter, Illyasviel von Einzbern.

The daughter whom he would faintly cry tears for whenever he hugged his adopted son before Telling and sharing his fond memories about the times that he would play 'walnut hunt' with her and how he would carry her on his shoulders And at the end always ending up with Shirou promising that he would save her.

' _I will find and save her, Kiritsugu.'_

Those were the last words that Shirou had said to the magus killer when he was laying down on his deathbed. The words that made the dying man smile before leaving this world. And I knew that I owe it to both of them to see it done.

I was no hero and neither a saint that would jump at the chance to help other people. I did not know the person called Illyasviel von Einzbern and the only time that I had seen her was as a fictional anime character that was made for the sake of entertainment and show but despite all the reasons that I had for ignoring her, I couldn't live with myself If I Were to ignore this and let Illyasviel succumb to the cruel fate that her counterpart had met at the unlimited blade works route. I owed Kiritsugu and Shirou Emiya that much at least.

That was why I had tolerated the Einzbern and had been working towards a plan to not just save her but to potentially change her _destiny_ , but things changed when I learned what the Germanic family had in plan for her.

They wanted to turn her into a vessel of the heaven's Fel Ritual. It was the same position that had killed her Mother Irisviel von Einzbern.

To avoid that; I knew that it was time to change the game so that I could be able to destroy one of the most ancient and Famous Magi families within the association with a single _move_ , a move that did not involve words or politics but only actions.

The church and the association called it the Einzbern Uprising. A homunculi uprising that was believed have been planned by Illyasviel von Einzbern and had been her attempt of gaining full control of the Einzbern family which was successful. But that was all nothing more than a front, a false face that I had made for the _massacre_ that had happened at the Einzbern castle.

The Einzbern castle was said to be among the most ancient and protected places for a Magi. It was Covered and protected by ancient bounded fields and wards that were rumored to be able to even keep it safe even from an invading army. Located within Germanic mountains, it was perfectly secluded and protected both magically and geographically.

However; once again the arrogance of Magi became one of the most useful advantages which I could use against them. Once upon a time, the boasts that the Einzbern made about their castle and safe-haven might have been true but in the age were such wonderful things called underground satellite images existed? Not so much.

Lesson number one when it comes to having a secured castle: make sure that the invader can't dig a hole and bypass all of your defenses through the underground. This lesson is defiantly crucial in this age where humanity has created advanced mining tools and equipment that can be used to get access to the natural underground caves under you're castle and be modified by rune Magecraft for increased time-efficiency and Results.

Once I was in the Einzbern castle's basement or should I say 'cellar', it was at the middle of the night–As if luck was with me for once because every member of the Einzbern were sleeping safely and sound without a worry that someone might infiltrate their so called impenetrable castle and slit their throats at the middle of the night.

Saving Illyasviel von Einzbern had been one of my primary Reasons but it was not my only reason for going after the Einzbern family. One of the other important objectives that I had was to gain information about the Grail.

In the battlefield, Reliable and solid information was a Priceless asset. The Course of Wars can be changed by information and the flow of knowledge. If I were to join the Holy Grail war, I damned sure wanted to have a more thorough information about the so called the 'prize' that I was risking my life for.

There were so many questions that I had about the grail and the only family who seemed to have at least complete knowledge about the damn thing were one of the three founding families that created the ritual known as the holy grail war or the heaven's Fel: The Tohsaka , Matou and Einzbern.

The only living member of the Tohsaka was the apprentice of the Wizard marshal and she was not exactly on good-terms with me. Asking her to give me access to her family's information regarding the creation and the history of the Holy Grail wars was not going to work and forcing her into a corner could have dangerous consequences that could not have been taken lightly.

When you're a magi's apprentice, your actions would also reflect on your master and you had to tread very carefully least you want to know what a magi would do to a person who in-danger's her policies and political image/Reputation. It wouldn't have gone well if it was known that the vice director's apprentice was putting pressure on the wizard marshal's student.

It would have been blood in water that would have attracted sharks and I'll be damned if I give those damn Magi the opportunity to use this against me or Rin. For the same reason, turning to the Matou for information was not an option because the only living member of the Matou was recovering from years of abuse and mental/psychological Conditioning. Brining attention to Sakura was dangerous when she was at such a vulnerable state and I wasn't going to take any risks when it came to her life, not without her permission. So that left only the Einzberns.

They had the information and the answers that I needed so I could find a way to avoid getting killed and stop the human race from becoming extinct. I also knew that the only the way that they were going to give it to me was through their dead bodies.

Something that I decided could be easily arranged.

By the time that morning came, the Einzbern family, one of the most ancient Magi line that boasted generations of work and progress for their Magi crest and prided themselves as the world's most greatest alchemists and homunculi creators, were _Gone_. The entire Ancient Germanic family, one of the largest and oldest magi clans within the clock-tower and the association, MURDERED, SLAUGHTERED in cold blood by my own hands, reduced from over hundred men to only one girl, in ONE night.

When I had exited the castle through the front door, I was holding a little snow-white haired girl in my left hand with a black blanket to keep her worm from the cold while holding a Rune-enchanted space expansion backpack with other. Before leaving, I stopped for a moment and looked back and I saw something that I knew that I would never forget.

I saw an entire waterfall of blood, Running down from the front steps and spilling out into the white snow and Painting it red. And among the sea of red, I saw my own footprints with not a single one looking like it was smudged or pooled–like I Was coming from a normal casual walk in the park, walking calmly and coolly without any hesitation or Doubt as if nothing was wrong.

 _What kind of monster you are that something like this doesn't even make you flinch;_ the words formed themselves within my mind before I turned around and left with the last living Einzbern in my arms and everything in their vaults within my backpack.

That was the truth behind the Einzbern uprising, I had made the cover story based on the logic that the bounded fields and defenses in the Einzbern castle had never been breached. So it logically had to be an uprising from within.

This is how Illyasviel von Einzbern became the head of the Einzbern family. Although technically new to the politics of the association, her name became well-known due to the Einzbern uprising. While her inexperience made her look like a good opportunity for other Magi Clans and family to use for their own benefit, none of them acted on it.

All because of one simple person who was said to be watching over her like a silent shadow, the same person who was rumored to have supported and even planed the uprising. The vice-director's apprentice was believed to be a man who had only managed to rise to a higher position and influence because of the vice-director herself but he had proven that antagonizing him was not a wise thing to do.

The Einzbern became a thorn at his side and sought to make an example of him, only for their plan to have reverse effect and instead they were the ones who were made of an example off. If he could do something like this to one of the most oldest Magi clans within the clock-tower then what will he do to those who attempt to use the last living Einzbern for their own gains and benefits, despite knowing that he's the one who is supporting and watching over her?

At the end, all of them decided that the risk was far too much for the reward. Illyasviel von Einzbern may have looked like a golden opportunity but the risk of sharing the same fate as the Einzbern was not worth it.

That was the endgame for the Einzbern who decided to play the game against me, and now I find myself playing another one of those games but this time my opponent was not a Magi clan but something possibly far more powerful and dangerous.

Something that had been lurking in the shadows for so long and had been carefully watching the events regarding the holy-grail wars, I even suspected its shadowy hands carefully pulling the strings and giving the cards to others who thought that they were the players that were playing the game but were in truth nothing more than Pawns.

Putting my hands under the chin, I looked to the servant of magic. Her cowl had been dissolved into blue Parana energy, leaving her face bare to be seen. Her medium long light-blue hair flowing at her back along with her heart-shape like face that give her beauty that I knew would make some-women Jealous, with the only thing that set her aside from others being her short knife-shaped like ears.

But even with all of the beauty that her face put on display, I was looking for something else. Like a hint of emotion that she was now feeling behind her blank-face.

Her attention was on the thick-file between us which rested on the table, her hands flipped one page after another while her eyes read every bit of information and word that were written on it.

To be honest, I had expected a lot of things when I had given her the folder which held the results of years of my investigation into the grail itself. When heroic spirits are summoned as servants, the grail itself automatically gives them knowledge about the current world such as cultures, Languages and other normal day to day information that you would expect a human born into this age know.

Such a feature was made so that servants could be more efficient and avoid things like culture shock; can you imagine the surprise that a servant might feel when they see the wonders of technology and progress in this age? Things such as air-planes, technologically advanced cities and environments were not exactly things that you could expect those who had lived during the age of legends and medieval times to be able to cope with without some form of help or prior knowledge.

Aside from that knowledge, I also knew that the grail also give some form of knowledge that includes the servant's placed class along with his or her noble phantasms and new limitations that had been placed on the heroic spirit. Otherwise, the servant would be facing a severe disadvantage. That kind of knowledge was something that I hoped that could help me to be one step closer into solving the mystery that is the Grail.

"I knew it," caster closed the file and put it on the table, glaring at It fiercely as if it was the source of all of her current problems. "I _knew_ that there was something suspicious about the grail. Its description alone should have been enough to make me to questions its existence and capabilities, yet I still fell for it like an idiotic naïve fool."

I could easily see the anger in the servant's tone, and I could honestly say that I didn't blame her. The information that I had just revealed to her had shown that the prize which she had been summoned for and thought to be genuine, was proving to suspiciously too good to be true.

I have seen a lot of things which can be said to be either impossible or unbelievable but a wish granting _omnipotent_ machine that can grant any kind of wish? The magi of this world seem to have fundamentally a few screws loose because who the _fucking_ hell can claim to have created such a thing?

The servant in front of me had came from an age where those called immortals walked among mortals and the existence of phantasmal beasts or the accomplishment of feats which today's magi consider to be impossible seem to have been a day to day occurrence and even she had her suspicions about the Grail.

But for the sake of certainty, I still needed to ask the question.

"You have lived during the age of magic and legends, Right caster?" seeing her nod, I continued. "Then could you honestly look to me in the eye and say that the Magi of that time could have created something like this and they didn't?"

"It's not about what they wanted, it's about the fact that they couldn't." she instantly answered without hesitating for a moment. "We're speaking about the possibility of creating an _omnipotent_ wish granting device that can turn the most imaginary wishes into reality, its creation is beyond the power of even the most powerful masters of magic that lived and thrived during my time."

"And yet we suddenly have three Magi Families that claim to have somehow created that which the Magi who lived during the age where magic was at its highest couldn't even create in the first place." I tapped the file with my finger, "do you see the pattern here caster?"

"…that there is a possibility that we're being manipulated by someone from the shadows, Yes I have suspected as much though what I find the most disturbing is the third holy grail war." She grabbed the file and opened it before skipping through a few pages and then putting it in front of me. "the first and second grail wars are clear as day but the third holy grail war is…" she paused, no doubt searching for a Words that could convoy her meaning.

"It's blank," I clarified while looking towards the information that I had highlighted with a red pen. "The true-name of the servants and the fate of their masters and the events regarding the war, there is a big piece of information vacuum in there and I suspect that our mystery friend doesn't want it to be known."

Of all the Holy Grail wars, the third war was the only grail war that had so such missing pieces of information and Data. The church took its duty very seriously when it comes to supervising the grail wars and recording the events that happened to it. The reason for such dedication and caution was to monitor the summoned heroic spirits and make sure that they don't go rouge under any _circumstances_.

You'll be the most ultimate naïve fool if you think that the Mage association and the church are willing to risk one of the seven summoned classes going rouge and in-danger the stability and secret existence of the supernatural world from the mundane one. It's like Lighting a torch and putting it in a basement full of gunpowder that is ready to explode; it just wasn't going to happen.

There already were enough powerful and dangerous individuals within the moonlit world -the name that the Magi of this world like call their hidden supernatural world- the possibility of beings like heroic spirits and servants joining the fray was a disaster and wasn't going to do any favors for anyone.

The thought of a heroic spirit suddenly deciding to use a noble phantasm and destroy a whole city on whim was the stuff of nightmares. Even the most powerful and dangerous of beings within the moonlit world take cared to make sure that their existence remained a secret from the governments and the public; otherwise it's the high risk of extinction. But heroic spirits didn't abide by this necessary rule of survival because they were already _dead_.

They were inferior clones of the original ones that were in the throne of heroes, why should they care about such rules when they were already dead?

It was best for everyone's sake and health that the summoned servants and masters be carefully monitored; otherwise a disaster is just waiting to happen.

"The church says that the summoned servants and masters are either gone or dead but the events and data regarding that statement is very vague." I flipped over the next page and looked to the names of the masters who had been chosen by for the third grail war, "especially when it comes to the Edelfelt Masters."

It is part of the agreement between the church and participating masters that should they die or decide to leave the grail war, then they would have to give their remaining command seals to the Holy Grail supervisor. If they die, then their bodies will have to be recovered and the command seals extracted from them.

By all rights, in the event of a master's death, his command seals go under the jurisdiction of the church. All the remaining command seals of the masters of the third war had been recovered except for two mysteriously disappeared masters.

The Edelfelt masters. The two participants which had used their family sorcery trait in order to summon two saber class servants as the different aspects of the same servant then rather than just one; mysteriously disappeared as if they weren't there in the first place.

What happened to them? Where they defeated in the early stages of the grail war when they had one of the most thought to be powerful servant in the grail war? What happened to their servants, who defeated them and how where they defeated?

The mage association and the church had asked those questions and both of them had directed them towards the Edelfelt family who had been called to explain why the two members of the family who had joined the war could not be found.

It was not the proudest event in the magi family's history and it definitely had cost the Edelfelt lots of things to get themselves out of that mess but it still didn't change the fact that two masters were missing.

It didn't matter how much the Edelfelt or how many times the mage association and the church tried to find them, there wasn't any sign or clue about what had happened to them. It was like they had vanished into thin air. Their servants had been defeated and destroyed and yet there was no sign of the two sister-masters. Even when a jointly made team of enforcers and exorcists entered the Edelfelt manor within japan and investigated it from top to bottom, they still didn't manage to find any trace of them. Except for their cloths and belongings had been there along with their so called 'assets' that they had brought with themselves from their home for the goal of winning the third grail war.

Yet the same could not be said for the sisters themselves.

God only knows what had really happened to those two, I had seen enough to know that there are worst things then death and I wouldn't wish them on my most hated enemy. And now there was a chance that the same mysterious thing could happen to Luvia and Rin or even possibly me. And with the looming shadow of Lazarus over my life again, the situation could only get worse before it gets any better.

It was All the more reason to arm myself and castor now and make preparations for the inevitable.

"It's going to be a very dangerous war, caster. even more dangerous and hard then the previous grail wars." Closing the file, I got up and started to walk towards the door. "The summoned heroic spirits and their Magi masters are not the only ones that we should be worried about." I opened the door and looked at caster expectantly, "We'll have to prepare ourselves as best we can, and that means I'll have to give you access to my workshop."

I decided to ignore the surprised expression on her face and turn around, closing the door behind myself. I started to walk towards the middle of the Emiya household.

The Emiya household was an old traditional Japanese household that was as big as a Japanese inn, with seven rooms, two bathrooms and a big large living room. It was a too much for a single person to live in but it was definitely the most idle place for a magi to setup his workshop.

The house was built on one of the Fuyuki lay lines and it was near one of the oldest traditional Japanese districts which made its location to be far away from the modern population centers that are within Fuykui and made it look like a bit secluded.

It made it easier for me to make a secret location under house –and a lot of modernly technological and magically traps- while being able to remain unnoticed by my so called neighbors.

' _do you truly wish to allow me access to your workshop?'_ the mental telepathic link between me and caster which was the result of our contract as a master-servant, allowed me to hear caster's voice so Clear that I was able to detect hints of suspicion and shock within it. _'Surely you'll know what this entitles? Do you trust me enough to reveal you're mysteries to me to such extent and at the span of not even a single day?'_

A Magi's workshop was one of the important places for him. It was the place where he creates/advances his mage craft and practiced his mysteries. It was the place where he would strive to become better at his abilities and craft.

I knew some magi that didn't even let their own children and family into their personal workshop, and entering a Magi's workshop without permission was an act of war by all rights and means of secrecy.

Yet here I was, allowing someone else entering my workshop. Something that I never would have done without at least years of time spent to know the said Someone before I even allow the thought to entertain my thoughts.

But caster was not just _someone_ ; she was now unofficially my servant and perhaps my only way of survival and getting out of the grail war alive. Liking it or not, I had to trust her because it was a necessity. Least I'll take a chance to doom both of us because of my paranoia.

And more importantly, I had said that I would attempt to earn her trust and loyalty. Such precious things could not be earned without risking and sacrificing something else in Return. When it came to it, I rather risk and gain a loyal partner then being stuck with a servant who I wasn't completely sure about where her loyalty was.

"I Said that I would earn you're trust and loyalty, didn't I?" I stopped and looked at a wooden wall that did not seem any different from the other ones in the house, "How can I do that, if I were refuse to give you the most powerful advantage that can help you against other servants and even _improve_ our chance at winning the holy grail war?" I put my right hand on the wall and looked to the single command seal that I had, command seals were the means for Magi to control their summoned heroic spirits and if the situation where to have been reversed then I never would have entrusted anyone with this kind of control or power over myself. It was damn near impossible for a man to trust someone when they had been betrayed, especially for one who knew the steps towards manipulating others by words and actions. But caster had given me a command seal and came to me, it would be a waste if I weren't to capitalize on this opportunity and take one step closer into earning her loyalty.

Not to mention that if my theory was correct then I'll be one step closer to get us out of this mess and even gain an extra servant as a bonus, depending if caster is willing to go with the plan that I had somehow managed to make within the hour.

It was not a plan that had a lot of preparations and back-ups in it but it was still better than nothing, even though it had more holes in it then a Swiss cheese.

' _I don't know if I should be flattered with the amount of respect and trust that you're giving me, praise you for your pragmatic thinking and solutions or question you're sanity as a Magus and wonder if you truly haven't gone mad.'_ Caster's voice was filled with disbelief and wonder like she was witnessing a miracle.

Here was a well-known and infamous Magi who was feared and hated in the moonlit world and didn't even knew her for even a single day, yet was willing to allow and give her access to his own workshop and was treating a lot more differently than the magi who had summoned her.

If this didn't break the mold then I don't know what will.

"A word of advice caster," although the tone of my voice hadn't changed at all, there was a layer of mirth under it. "Shiro Fraga and the Word 'Sanity' should never be in the same sentence, _Period_. Those two don't mix at all."

Focusing on the wooden wall, I watched as small tiny runic words started to appear from my hand to the door and looked as they filled the wall with tiny black dots that slowly covered a small portion of it and then expanded into covering it whole.

The wall was as black as night soon enough. It may have looked like any other ordinary black wall that you could have seen in many places, but the truth was that this was not a black-wall made of paint but of complicated Runes and Seals that are the results of my mastery of Runes.

"Can you please materialize?" I patiently waited as the servant took her physical form. "Thank you, now I Apologize for doing this."

Before caster could say anything, I grabbed her hand and then enveloped her into a hug and pushed myself and her into the wall.

Rather than hitting a solid object, it felt as if we were engulfed into by a sudden water fall before I felt something solid under my feet. Letting go of caster, I took a step back in order to acknowledge her personal space.

"Where are we?" she looked to our new surroundings with guarded before leveling me with an expectant One.

"We are in my workshop,", the Space that we were now standing in was a very large one with a small part of it being covered by shelf after shelf of ancients books while the other side was protected by a black-fence wall with the word 'Danger' written over it in an orange color. Behind the fence, there were stacks of crates and backpacks arranged in an organized order with various boxes arranged beside them, "Though this is also my base of operations."

"How did you build something so big at the middle of your own home?" her gaze sharply looked around the black walls and crates.

"Who said I did?" I shamelessly allowed a boastful smile appear on my face, like a man who is taking pride in his own accomplishments. "A battalion of enforcers can storm my home and search every nook and corner. To Hell with it, they can even uproot it and turn it upside down but they won't find a thing about my safe-haven here, because we are now in a Sub-Space dimension."

"Sub-Space Dimension?" caster looked to me as if I had suddenly grown an extra head, "are you saying that you had created a space within dimension? Using your own Magecraft?" she shook her head and folded her arms on her chest, "I knew that you were one to jest but this is a poorly made one."

"It's not a 'jest' Caster, we are now standing in a very limited and small subspace dimension which I had created though space manipulation Using Runes and lots of other things." Years of research and experiments along with an un-holy amount of Math, physics and headaches notwithstanding, the results were worth it.

To a paranoid scarred man like me with questionable thoughts, skewed morals and sanity, having a safe haven like this was like a blessing. It was my sanctum, the place where I would go to seek silence and be away from the rest of the world for a while.

It made it all the more difficult for me to bring someone else here, but it was something that I needed to do.

Sooner or later, we will face choices in our which we don't want to take but we simply have to because of necessity. It was hard and by god did it suck. but it is something that we'll have to do.

"This is my safe-haven caster," I gestured widely towards the walls, "its walls are covered by years of Rune seals and various Fail-safes, it took three years to even create such a thing. It has saved my life many times and kept me safe from those who sought to do me harm. I Hope you understand what kind of trust I'm putting into you by giving you free access to it."

' _Let's hope I Don't Regret this.'_ I Let out a tired sigh and waited a few moments for the women to answer, Hearing no replay. I looked towards the Servant of Magic…

Only to find her gone from the previous space she was standing on and instead standing beside one of the bookshelves, her hand inches away from touching a _certain_ Black book.

"Don't touch that book!" I yelled and froze as caster sharply pulled her hand back.

"Take a step back from that thing caster," I felt like a bomb disposal squad who was now standing in front of an Armed Nuclear warhead, and for a very good-Reason. "Take your time and _slowly_ take a step back," my eyes were sharply on the black book which was innocently sitting on the shelf, I watched as the servant slowly took a step back from the shelf.

Perhaps it was because my eyes were as wide as they could and looked to be ready to pop out their sockets or my desperate and fearful voice that stopped her from questioning.

My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest any moment with each step that the servant took before she was standing beside me and had a good distance between herself and the book.

Letting out a breath that I didn't even knew I was holding, I put my hand over my chest and forced myself to calm down.

We just dodged a very dangerous disaster and I don't need to say that today was already complicated enough, there was no need for extras.

"What is that thing?" Caster's question brought my thinking time to a halt.

"Aestas Infernas," I leveled a wary look towards the black book, "The Book of the Damned. You're looking at one of the most Dangerous Objects within the moonlit world, and the Cause of the apostle war."

"That is not an object; it is a _living_ _noble_ _phantasm_." She looked to me with an impressed look, "how did you managed to find something like this and what is this about an 'apostle war' that you're speaking of?"

I blinked a few times in response to her questions before nodding my head, if Infernas can change and affect apostle ancestors to such extant then calling it a living freaking noble phantasm was not impossible.

It might even be a right description. But a living Noble Phantasm… how does something like that even work?

And regarding her lack of knowledge of the apostle war, it's a modern event so of course she doesn't know about it. Someone really needs to 'update' the grail system.

"Do you know whose noble phantasm is it?" I asked, "and how are you even sure that it's a noble phantasm?"

"One of the advantages that a servant has is that we can learn and recognize a 'thing' which falls under the category of noble phantasm, provided the conditions are met for it." Caster pointed at the black book, "the activation of a noble phantasm is not the only thing which can reveal its identity. The way it's used, its form and function can also be a cause."

"So who does it belong to?"

"I don't know," she answered. Which was the signal for me to face-palm, so much for getting my hopes-up; "the answer is at the tip of my lips but it somehow evades me, it is probably due to its condition that has been set on it."

"Do you know how it's used and what kind of effects it has?" I removed my hand from my face, "any information that you spare can help us greatly in the long run."

I made a mental note to continue this conversation at another date before focusing on the matter that is more important right now: how to convince Lorelei to not give every one of us a straight ticket to a very painful grave.

"you'll have to find a way to hid that book," caster's voice once again brings me out of my thoughts, "Greed and ambition can be a very powerful motivator for a fool or two to come after you in order to gain their hands into the book."

"Caster, we're in a sub-dimension, say it with me: S-U-B-D-I-M-E-N-S-I-O-N." I slowly pronounced the words as politely as I could. "Any fool or idiot, who wants to come here, will have to first find one of my secret doors which I might add is almost an _impossible_ endeavor, and then even if they find it; _none_ of them will be able to activate it without me doing it for them. And even if they somehow manage do so, the moment that they set foot into place, they'll be shredded into pieces by _molecular_ level." There were also other contingencies in place but it was best not to reveal them to the servant in front of me.

"You're actually serious?" for the first time in the day, I saw the woman's mouth open in shock. "You're not trying to secretly mock me are you?"

Trying to mock a woman who can turn you inside out with just a bare thought; wouldn't that be an interesting way for a master to go.

Still, I have to decline. I didn't live still long with being stupid.

"…Why don't you go and check the walls? I'm sure then you learn that I'm not trying to mock you." True to my words, the servant sharply stepped forward the walls and inspected them as if she was a researcher studying a particular interesting bacteria from behind a microscope.

"By the ancient Ones," she quickly looks to me and then walks towards me until she stands right in front of me. "You're a Magician."

"Nope," I instantly killed that train of thoughts without missing a beat. "Magicians are Magi who have fully mastered their Magecraft; they are the pinnacle of Magi. And I'm not the pinnacle of Magi."

"You can manipulate space-time by using you're Magecraft, even a create workshop within a 'sub-dimension' of your own." Caster argued, "And I don't doubt for a moment that you have developed a host of other abilities which you have mastered through the years."

"I won't deny or acknowledge that," I Tried to ignore the sudden feeling of pride at hearing the servant of the Magic's Praises. "But enough about me because today is going to be the day where we'll be going to using you're prowess and skills at full capacity."

"You have a plan?" there was a sudden image of a women who was standing on the deck of a ship and with such a ruthless calculating gaze in her eyes that she was willing and had cut her own brother's corpse into pieces and throw it into the ocean.

I blinked and it was gone as soon as it had come.

"Oh, I have Several _Plans_." The smile that appeared on my face was something that you could only see on the face of Shiro Fraga the boogeyman, the trickster who had made many dancing with the tune of his flute within the Moonlit world.

 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

The Church near Fuyuki was built near the outskirts of the town and had a dedicated cemetery near itself along with a forest of old-trees. The church was in pristine condition and held services for those who wish to use it.

It also housed the bane of my life, in form of a woman who had made her life-time hobby to make my life more chaotic and miserable. Her name was Caren Hortensia.

So anyone could understand me when I say that the amount of hidden satisfaction and glee that I felt when I knocked on the door and she opened it was not small, it almost made my day when I saw her seeing the smile on face that resembled a shark that had smelled blood on water.

"Ah," She put on such a motherly-priest like smile on her face that I knew was all fake, "Mr. Fraga, so good of you to visit me before I left."

"No need to rush Caren," my smile grow wider, "you and I have a lot of business, and believe me when I Say that you won't catching the plane by the time that you have 'attended' to your duties as the supervisor for the grail war."

"Then please come in," she fully opened the door and then allowed to me enter before closing it behind with a faint thump, sitting on one of the benches, I patiently waited as she took a seat beside me.

"So, how may I help you Mr. Fraga?" I contemplated on the ways which I could take this before choosing a route in which I liked to bring the conversation and tie the Rope around this sadistic women's Neck.

"Could you please recite the law of neutrality which the church follows regarding the Holy Grail wars and the supernatural world?" the smile on my face had long since vanished and had been replaced by a sharp look.

"Is there any matter…?"

"Recite the law, Caren." there was nothing gentle about the tone of my voice; the women who knew me well could easily recognize the steel in it.

"As a neutral entity and supervisor, the church is forbidden from giving any kind of advantage to any of the masters, servants or those who wish to participate in the grail wars." She finished with her official mask now firmly placed on her face.

Deciding that actions spoke more loudly then words, I put my hand in my pocket and brought a certain black folder and give it to her with an expectant look on my face. Taking it, she opened it and started to read it for a few minutes.

Using the given opportunity, I looked to her and started to compare her to the last time that I had seen her since it was a month ago. Caren looked to be a women who was at the middle of her twenties with silver-white hair, she was wearing a black color jean along with a white color Shirt with a cross necklace at the front of it. Her golden color eyes looked to be the previous ones that I had before my long-term use of Magecraft changed their color to gray.

Patiently waiting as she finished reading the entire file, she calmly put the file on the bench beside her like someone who goes to a restaurant and picks up a menu, read it and puts it at the table.

"That's a deep archive file, _my_ file." I spoke slowly as if I was speaking with a child rather than an experienced member of the black sacrament, the division within the church which dealt with supernatural affairs. "Kindly tell me what it is doing in the hands of a Magi and a servant's master none the less."

To her credit, Caren did not show any sign of nervousness or agitation. She just simply leaned back against the chair and put on a thoughtful look on her face before she let out a deep sigh. "A year ago, this file had been stolen from the deep archive facility within a classified and sanctified location through unknown means.

"Thirty-five church executors and five members of the staff died in the effort of protecting that file. We had suspected that the infiltrator had been a servant but we unfortunately had no proof of such a thing." The fact that if the church acted directly then things could have turned dangerously complicated real fast, did not escape my mind. "So we increased our efforts of monitoring the masters and the servants." No doubt they had also lunched many investigations into finding out who was daring enough to pull something like this on the church and adding more protocols to their precautions, should a servant attempt to do such a thing again. But I kept my thoughts to myself to let the supervisor continue. "We had suspected of foul play and any harmful attempts at you're…. life and we were ready to respond accordingly as such was our responsibility. I'm sure you understand why we needed to be subtle and discreet about this matter and refrained from informing you about this."

"I understand the reasoning," I acknowledged, "but that doesn't mean that I like it."

The First lesson when it comes to learning about politics and organization managements; is that one of their greatest tools was their reputation, their laws and policies. An organization no matter how small or big, Powerful or influential, is nothing without its laws or its image.

It is through reputation and image that others look to your organization and interact with it. A Lawless organization could not be trusted and relied to follow its deals and services without problem or complications that a smart and experienced business man wants to avoid. How can you trust a company who can't even follow their own laws and regulations?

Trusting something like that was a basically like giving a business man his own death-sentence and ask him to sign it.

Still, that didn't mean that I wasn't going to demand compensation.

"I can also assure you that we are willing to provide you with…. a reasonable compensation," Caren unanimously agreed with the notion of provide me with something to keep any kind of 'complain' to myself.

It was politics one-oh-one; give something to the complainer so that he doesn't reveal you're disastrous secret and make sure that you have something on him that keeps him from demanding more and opening his mouth.

In this case, the fact that if I open my mouth then not only the church's reputation as a neutral entity goes under the question but also the fact that the information in my archive file goes under risk, something that I can't allow to happen.

Not when I want to join the fifth grail war, not when I need the church's help to be recognized as a master.

"I'm sure we can come to a reasonable agreement," I took the 'hook' that Caren had thrown at me, it was time to see if the woman can fish the shark that she has just baited.

Putting my hand in my pocket, I brought out a paper and give it to the supervisor who looked to it with a raised eyebrow before she started to read.

It was not a moment later that the she voiced her objections, "Oh my," she lowered the paper and leveled a gaze at me, "I said reasonable compensation and reparations, none of your demands are either of the two."

"Which ones?" I eagerly asked, the shark had taken the bait and the fisher was now pulling the line, Time to see who is going to become the haunted.

"You're first demand is that we formally recognize you as a 'master'." Caren repeated the word 'master' as if it was a foreign and un-logical word. "We can't do that without you having your own command seals and having a servant."

' _I believe that's you're queue to enter the stage, Caster.'_ I send the words to the heroic spirit through the telepathic link between us, _'just remember the script.'_

Sure enough, small-golden Parana particles gathered around before they fused themselves and allowed the servant of magic to take her physical form, floating in mid-air like she was sitting on a floating invisible chair.

"Greetings, Supervisor of the church." She greeted, the widening of Caren's eyes was enough for me to know that it had clear effect as I had intended it to have. "I am servant Caster, I Have come here to change the registry of my former master and inform you of the crime that I had been forced to commit because of his use of command seals."

"You sure know how to surprise a girl, Emiya-kun." Caren muttered under her breath before she reigned in her surprise, the Japanese honorific sounded a bit strange with her Italian accent. "Very well then… as the supervisor of the Holy Grail war, I will register you're new master. Provided that he agrees to follow the rules that are in place." To which I quickly nodded and agreed without a word. "Then it is settled, I will send the updated records to the church shortly but what is this about you being forced into committing crimes by your former master? Surely he knows that summoned servants aren't allowed to use their abilities and activate their noble phantasm unless they have entered the grounds for the Holy Grail war."

In the course of Holy Grail wars, there have been instances where servants had been re-registered with new masters. The church did not care about the name of the servant or the master, as long as they are willing to follow the rules and policy that had been placed for the secrecy and safety of the Holy Grail war.

In Simple words, you can steal other servants and make them your own as long as you can guarantee that you are able to control them and follow the rules.

It's open season between magi when one among them gets command seals and they learn about it, if those magi don't understand that others will be after their heads once they'll learn that they have command seals and instead choose to flaunt them like some public accomplishment then they deserve what's coming to them.

Not even Magecraft and magical abilities will be able to save you from your own stupidity.

The more stupid Magi were the ones that thought that just only they have summoned a heroic spirit, they can do whatever they want and not to worry about the consequences. How easy it is for them to forget that the age that they were living in, while not the age of gods and Magic, was the age of killing and killers.

In the ancient days, Mankind used swords and bows to take care of business but now there were such good extermination wonders called firearms and weapons of mass destruction. Atomic bombs, artillery and heavy caliber rounds can easily take care of even die-hard Magicians-individuals who are hailed to have achieved the pinnacle of their craft and Magecraft.

You think you are invincible just because you have fully mastered you're Magecraft and have a tremendous control over magnetism? Well, let me introduce you to white phosphorus. It can easily remind that you're perceived 'invincibility' is nothing more than a _lie_.

You believe that you're immortal and un-killable just because you're Magecraft gives you a highly advanced healing factor? Please, let me show you that you need to _breathe_ just like the rest of us and prove to you that you're healing factor won't do a thing for you when you're being drowned in water.

Of course, there were also Anti-servant tactics and strategies that could be used against a heroic-spirit and as I had firmly explained to caster, they were highly _effective_. Heroic spirits were powerful but they were not invincible.

Neither me nor my now servant wanted to be targeted by the church or have a bounty of 'one command seal' for our heads. That was why we needed to use a scapegoat that will shoulder all the blames, rightfully so because he was the reason and cause for this mess in the first place.

In other words, we were going to throw the corpse of caster's dead master straight under the bus. Dead men might not tell any tales but they sure can still be useful in many other ways. Their silence can be as vocal as thousands of words.

"As you know, when summoned from the throne of heroes, we servant immediately receive knowledge and information regarding the modern age and the laws which we need to follow when entering the Holy Grail wars." Caster Said, "as such I'm duty bound to inform you that through the use of his own command seals and authority as a master, my previous summoner had forced me to break many important fundamental rules.

"Including but not limited to: assault and battery against normal civilian individuals who were not part of our world, burglary and murder against the servants of the church," Caren instantly straightened upon hearing that, no doubt putting the two-to-two together and learning how I got my hands on the archive file. "Endangerment of the secrecy of the grail war and the existence of the Magi, Forced use and activation of my noble phantasm in an environment outside of the holy grail war designated land, attempted murder of the supervisor of the grail war and the violation of my contract as a servant."

"…Excuse me," Caren placated, already well-placed in her role as a representative of the church and the supervisors of the Holy Grail war. "I'll need to ask you a few questions before we can continue, May I know you're Name?"

In response; Caster looked towards me, just as we had planned when it came to playing our roles as 'master' and 'servant'. "Am I allowed to reveal my true name, master?"

At the back of my mind, I felt a sudden sense of nervousness and fear. Names and titles have power because they represented every bit of our action and history, something that I had personal experience in when it comes to have an infamous name that either is hated or feared.

I Knew about Caster's true name and she didn't told me that, She Feared and hated her own name because it was associated with her legend as the witch of Colchis.

I didn't know much about this world's Medea but damn it all, She reminded me of myself when I had allowed the world to use my own name against me. A mistake which I had rectified by remembering who I was and never to be ashamed of it, the opinions of people did not interest me one bit because all they can do is to open their mouths and judge that which they don't even fully know about.

Why should I care about the opinions of people? At the end of the day, I'm the one who has to live with my own choices and their consequences.

I have made my way in all of my life; I'll do the same for the rest of my years. It was going to be a lesson that I was determined to teach Caster, she deserves that much at least.

"No," I answered firmly, pointing at the archive file beside the supervisor. "That deep archive file is enough evidence for you to give credibility to my servant's words, there is no reason to reveal her true name and risk someone else finding it."

"This is the Fuykui-church," Caren replied firmly, "it has been sanctioned and a safe neutral ground for at least four Holy Grail wars."

"and that's a deep archives file," I shot back, "it _has_ been in one of the most secured places that the church could come-up with, protected by many formidable defenses, such as seasoned executors and exorcists. I believe we all know how well that ended-up."

There was a moment of tense silence between us before we both broke eye contact.

"Very well," Caren relented though I could see that she was not happy one bit, she turned towards the servant of magic. "About the crimes that you just mentioned, can you start explaining them one by one? That way, we can avoid many troublesome questions and less time is wasted."

"Certainly," Caster answered.

"Then let's start by the first charge," Caren put a hand under her chin, "you said assault and battery against Normal civilians, where they Magi or mundane?"

"Mundane." Caster clarified, already remembering how I told her to answer the questions and make sure that everything is set in pace.

"On what reason did you're former master order you to attack normal civilians?"

"He didn't order me, He _threatened_ me with the use of a command seal should I refuse to follow his Orders. His excuse was that he wanted to witness my abilities firsthand, Naturally I Refused."

"And why did you refuse?"

"Because that idiotic fool wanted me to use my abilities in a population center full of technological advancement and tools that had a dangerous ability of recording the event," Caster dropped the first bombshell. "I believe the term which you use for them is 'surveillance recording' or 'camera', if I'm not mistaken."

"You aren't," Caren's eyes were narrowed; I knew that she wouldn't like the things that came next. "Such an event would have proven to be very dangerous for the grail war, endangering the secrecy of the grail war. You have followed the Rules as a servant, just as you should have. There is no harm done there but did you're master use a command seal?"

"He used the first one by ordering me to find one of the church's deep-archive facilities." Caster dropped the next bomb; the amount of charges and torches that the black sacrament is going to setup against caster's former master was going to be very high in number.

If the fool was not dead then the church would immediately make sure that he was going to have a taste of what happens when you break the rules, Making an example of him can go a long way of proving what happens when you break the rules.

"And how did you manage to find out the location of a secret archive facility?" Caren addressed the elephant in the room which –ironically- will lead to smaller or even bigger elephants. The amount of rules that caster's old master will be known to have-sorry, _has broken_ , Will be warranting a good place in the Guinness World Records Book.

…. At least he'll have something to be remembered by.

"I'm a Magi from the age of Magic and miracles," Caster's voice took a boastful and prideful tone, just as I had forced her to practice in front of the mirror. "While not the strongest servant, I am still a servant. As such I possess capabilities that allow me to control other individuals like a puppet master controlling the movement of her puppets."

"So that is how the location of one of our archive facilities had been compromised," Caren concluded, "you used our own to find it, But still that doesn't explain one important thing." Her tone went cold and frosty, "you said that you were ordered to find, so why did you attack?"

"My summoner used his second command seal to force me to attack you're…. people with prejudice, he wanted to see the full extent of my abilities and had no qualms about their lives as a 'well-used' Recourse." If anything else, Caster's answer turned Caren's expression frostier and colder than before.

"I see," The white-haired woman contemplated before she continued; "you're noble phantasm, what type of noble phantasm do you have? Can you describe its effects and its workings? If you're master allows it, that is." At that, Caster and Caren both looked to me once again.

"It was a noble phantasm armament that enacted a special concept upon contact," I explained, doing my part to make sure that caster's noble phantasm is kept secret and the pressure is a little bit reduced from her shoulders. "It might have an exquisite appearance but it works as mundane as you can want it to, thank god for small mercies. We were lucky that caster Managed to find a loophole in that idiot's command or else we all would have been goners by now."

"A stroke of fortune," caster was quick to grab the silver-lining that I had made for her. "I shudder to think what would have happened if I had used my other noble phantasm to summon dragons without being able to control them."

"Wait, you can summon dragons?" Caren sharply looked to caster with a dangerous look on her face; I quickly decided that it was time to move to the next stage of this act.

"She _could_ have summoned Dragons," I put extra emphasis on the word 'could'. "She can't do so anymore because we have destroyed that noble phantasm for good."

I was a man of pragmatism, and knew enough about noble phantasms to know that the type of noble phantasm that was the most dangerous is the one that was not even controllable by even its owner and user. Ask any experienced military field commander and tactician, and they will say that a weapon or asset, no matter its potential and power, was useless if it was not controllable.

It was unreliable and a liability in a chaotic place that is the battlefield, no kind of advantage was ever worth completely risking the moral and life of your forces. And a noble phantasm that can summon dragons -the ultimate species of phantasmal beasts within this world- without giving the means of controlling them was useless to me or caster.

Better to go to battle without it then to risk having a rampant uncontrollable dragon turning against us.

"So you completely destroyed the noble phantasm?" Caren asked straightly and no doubt expecting a straight answer, something that I was willing to provide.

"Yes," I answered before leaning back, I quickly send a telepathic message to the servant of magic and readying myself for the ultimate conclusion that I knew was coming. The curtains were slowly falling and the outcome of our words and acts will soon be presented on us on a silver-platter.

"Okay, then let's see to the final offense. You said that you can control others, did you're former master wanted you to use your abilities on me as the supervisor of the grail war?" Caren directed her question towards caster, the servant of magic simply nods her head rather than answer.

Caren was not a battle-oriented executor but I couldn't deny the fact that she had an uncanny talent and inquisitive mind when it came to discarding lies for truth. Her weapons were information and knowledge that she used to outsmart and outmaneuver her opponents, directly lying to that kind of opponent was dangerous and too much risky. I would be a very poor manipulator if I were to deny the chance that Caren knew at least something about caster's former master, I Had to use vagueness to blunt this advantage or else I might find myself defeated without even knowing when it happened.

By stars and stones, give me ignorant fools as enemies rather than smart women with unknown motives and aims.

Those of the last category always seemed to have a tendency trying to kill or use me at least once, small wonders that I was wary of them.

"Well then, I believe this concludes it." Caren brought out a watch from her pocket before she quickly pocketed it, I didn't miss the glint in her eyes and I instantly knew that she suspected our 'performance'. "I'll make it official by saying that the church acknowledges you're status as a master and servant, So Welcome to the Holy Grail war, Shirou Fraga." Caren offered her hand which I shook…

Before both of us stiffened as we felt a bounded field appear over the Fuykui church.

And it was only through instincts that were screaming 'danger' that I grabbed Caren and quickly throw both myself and her into the ground as the church's two massive wooden doors had exploded off of their hinges. The shockwave turned them into wooden splinters.

Then huge swarms of bullets pierced the church's walls and I had to quickly hold Caren under the weight of my body, she was raised by the church and to see someone desecrate its sanctity was not something that she would ever tolerate.

Even I had reservations and a limit, desecrating a place of worship that belonged and is dedicated to the almighty was passing what I was willing to do.

" **Go in and retrieve the body** ," my already superhumanly enhanced senses heard a distorted voice shouting an order.

 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

When it comes to the difference between a soldier and a civilian, one of the greatest differences was that a soldier was trained to the sounds of firearms and his mentality had already adapted to it. While a civilian was not, they had no training to fall back to and the sound of a firearm was enough to shake them to the core and make them panic.

Panic in the battlefield and you'll do stupid mistakes that will cost you your life, this was the primary reason why one of the first orders of business for a military operative was to evacuate the civilian. Their panicking can get them in the way and they'll make things harder than they already are.

Not to mention that military personal effectively represented the military portion of their government and killing civilians -accidently or not- is enough to give reasons for your superiors to demote you or throw you into facing court martial or a host of many other charges.

There were extensions and exceptions in which you can't hope to evacuate the civilians, instead you had to follow you're given objectives and orders, letting the responsibility to fall on others like the police. It was a harsh view on human life that many would condemn but at the end a soldier was not a police officer, his ultimate duty was to follow orders and his fields of jurisdiction was on the battlefield, not on civilian handing.

So When I had pinned Caren under my body, I had immediately grabbed her shoulders to keep her pinned to the ground as bullets started to fly around us. Caster had already taken her astral form, so I didn't need to worry about her.

Caren was no stranger to combat but the use of heavy-caliber firearms with bullets racing at the top of her were not something that anyone could hope to get comfortable with without a tremendous experience as a frontline combatant.

Something that I had plenty in amount for both of us, hopefully it can prove to be enough in this one.

' _There is a door at the back of the church, use your astral form and check it to make sure that no one is waiting at the back.'_ I sent towards Caster while my eyes were focusing on piercing golden yellows darting left and right until they focused on me.

Distress and surprise and fear were the first things that I saw until they changed to fury and anger as they gazed into me before slowly a sudden calmness and familiar Confidence that I knew from the women who had banished supernatural creatures and outsmarted dead-apostles appeared over them.

"When I get up, I want to you be ready to run as fast as you can." I whispered into her ear, I felt her shoulder's shudder. "Don't argue with me, don't even look back. Just move forward as fast as you can with me beside you. Got it?" I looked to her eyes to convoy how serious of a situation we are in before the bullets stopped coming and I heard the distorted voice speaking again, issuing no doubt an order for our assailants to enter.

Quickly putting my hand in my pocket, I brought out a set of cards with one side showing the design of white lines on black fields and the other side being fully white with the exception of showing the various runes that were written on them. Throwing one at the wall near the door, the card quickly stuck itself to the wall before shimmering as it took the color of the wall.

' _Is there anyone in the back?'_ I asked the servant of magic before quickly getting-up to a crouch and helped Caren do the same as we slowly started walk towards the back of the church.

' _There is no sign of anyone.'_ Caster confirmed as I quickly started to throw the cards into the walls on thechurch before quickly throwing the rest of them into the air as they started to hover into the air before shooting up towards the church's roof, sticking to it like their predecessors.

"Come on," I motioned towards Caren as we reached the back of the church, already I could hear the sound of boots entering into the church. The door had -unaspiringly- enough holes in it that it was a wonder that it hadn't fallen yet…

Until it fell with an audible _'thud'_ , right before my hand could even touch the damn thing.

I could later swear that everything had stopped for a moment as if someone had grabbed the remote and clicked on the 'pause' button.

" **He's in the back**!" the same distorted voice shouted, like a signal both me and Caren quickly decided that it was time to run like the devil himself was after us. Just as we had exited the church, I decided that leaving without giving them a present would be bad manners.

After all, no good deed goes unpunished.

With a snap of my finger, the rune-cards that I had planted in the church exploded with a definite ' _boom_ ', its support structure falling and then coming crashing down on our would-be-assassins along with the roof.

Poetic justice if I ever seen one. If you put one of the Almighty's places of worship to the bullet, then you deserved to have its roof come crashing-upon you. I knew some people that might call it being divine retribution and I honestly didn't have any better name for it.

"Mark my words, there are going to be _consequences_ for this," Caren seethed, face flushed scarlet red and panting with her luggage held between her arms. There must have been something really important in there if she was willing to haul it as we ran.

"I don't have any doubts about that," I answered back while running beside Caren with the occasional tree that came in front of us who we had to pass by putting distance between ourselves. The Fuykui church was built near the shriveled old forest so we were safe from sniper rifle or being fired upon from afar. The only clearing ground was the cemetery and the road which I had a feeling was not going to safe at all considering that we were running on foot while there was a chance that our enemies had vehicles or other fast methods of transportation that could let them catch us within minutes.

I had already sent a list of detailed instructions towards my servant who was busy seeing to them, those preparations -those made before and the ones that are being made now- can see to it that we had our own deck of cards.

Provided that we could survive that long that is.

"Stop," I said when we reached the edge of the forest and towards the graveyard.

A single unnoticeable grave was buried near the old hollowed tree near the edge between the forest and the graveyard. You could look to it for thousands of hours and you won't find anything related to that grave either magical or mundane, it was just a grave others but to me? It was a mark and an advantage.

My reinforced hand easily shattered the tree's wood and went through into it before coming out holding a large bag, ignoring Caren's gasp, I quickly opened the bag.

Two black bullet proof vest were the first things that I brought out, throwing one towards Caren who grabbed it with a bit of 'oomph' before quickly putting on the remaining one in my hands with practiced ease of a trained and experienced soldier.

I hadn't missed the words that had been used, they had said 'He' Rather than 'them'. The only male gender that was in the church alongside Caren had been me, so these killers and assassins were after me without any doubt.

I wanted to know the reason and have a through a 'chat' with them through a message that anyone with two brains cells to rub together understood: the message that could not be mistaken from the barrel of a gun.

"When I give the signal, we run as fast as we can towards the middle of the cemetery." I instructed, grabbing a belt full of clip-pouches and putting them on. "if you suddenly feel tired and see you're self-slowing down, take cover behind a tombstone and wait for my next instructions." Brining out a small ring-box, I open it. Two weeding rings stared back at me before I grabbed one of them then grabbed Caren's hand with my other.

"…A weeding ring?!" for a second time in the day, Caren's face flushed.

"A telepathic communication medium," I instantly corrected before putting the ring in her finger while doing the same for my own. "It's thought activated so you should be able to easily use it; its range is one kilometer."

Bringing a small bag full of cards out of the bag along with a pistol holster, I attached the holster then brought the cards before kicking the bag away before drawing the pistol and focusing on it. The thing about reinforcement was that while the original Shirou Emiya might have used it to reinforce his body and his blade, I used the ability on a more versatile and diverse basis.

A Master swordsman might be able to wield his sword masterfully and kill his opponents one by one but a master tactician could easily bring down armies and even countries to their knees by well-placed actions and strikes.

When you have an ability that allows you to reinforce any object both in physical and material sense, why not use it to increase you're chance of success?

Reinforcing a pistol's material components and parts along with its bullets to give them the capability to pierce heavy-armor and muscles and bones, I can do something a nine millimeter pistol where a normal soldier would need specialized ammo and Weapon.

Was it lethal and deadly? Yes but then that was the thing about weapons, there was nothing holy about them. They turned their wielders into killers and their targets into the 'killed'.

Those who pick-up the weapon are sending a clear message to everyone that they are willing to kill or be killed; there was no middle-ground.

"Ready?" I looked to Caren, Drawing the pistol in my hand before starting to throw rune-cards that attached themselves to the trees and even the grave-stones. Memorizing their places in my memory, I took a deep breath before snapping my finger and instantly one of the Rune-cards in the clearing exploded with a silent hiss that released a wave of smoke into the clearing and started to cover it.

"Go," the word hadn't even left my mouth before both of us ran into the wave of smoke.

Finding your way in a smoke-screened field can prove to be a challenge but surprisingly an easy endeavor when you use reinforcement Magecraft to enhance your vision and senses. It was not a moment too soon that I felt a bounded-field being put up on the clearing, our assailants had catch up to us and it was now time to start the game with the winners remaining amongst the living and the defeated being put to death.

When I saw Caren taking cover behind a grave, I threw a Rune-card at her which stock on her shirt. It immediately glowed briefly before runes instantly engulfed Caren's body and cloths before she suddenly turned invisible.

' _chameleon-pattern Rune Card, it will mask the body heat and turn you invisible but distortions in the air can still be seen.'_ I activated the telepathic medium while grabbing the now invisible woman's luggage and then quickly started to run, _'keep your head down and avoid moving too much while I deal with this mess.'_

I could have used another chameleon-pattern Rune Card to turn myself invisible but that would give our attackers a reason to spray their bullets in a hail of gunfire and I didn't trust Caren to be able to dodge them all and know where to take cover without giving her position away.

I had to keep attention away from her while at the same time avoid getting outflanked or overwhelmed, a pretty tall-order when you're one against many but I have dealt with much worse and more difficult before.

Crouching behind a stone, I focused on my Arsenal of blades and focused on a certain dagger which I knew was going to prove to be an advantage in this situation. It was a three ponged dagger with sharpened and keen edges that were designed for penetration; Small micro-runes were designed and sketched on the handle of the small Dagger with care of an artist who was painting a picture.

Taking a small breath, I closed my left eye and focused as the observational Card runes that I had planted around cemetery activated and allowed me to observe the field…

Only to see nothing, there was no one there.

' _Come on, where the hell are you?'_ I looked from one rune to another until I saw a small distortion in the edge of my vision, I instantly knew what it was and I knew who my enemies where.

"Zelretch," I seethed with clinched teeth, "I swear by all that is good and holy, I'm going to throw you to the wolves if I get out of this alive."

I had worked and even sometimes lived with Rin and Luvia, most of the time I always ended-up as the one who kept those two in line because Rin and Luvia are like dynamite and fire. Put them together and you have a recipe for a disaster that has destroyed many of the Clock-tower's classrooms. Add Zelretch to the mix and suddenly the dynamite becomes a atomic bomb of huge destruction, and I mean literally.

Zelretch's play field is the dimensional Magecraft called kaleidoscope, the operation on parallel or alternative worlds. This man was insanity and madness all merged into one, enough that he can somehow steal a time-machine from some other universe and then uses it to go to the future of this world and bring enough havoc to give reason for a future task-force to be created called Task-force Korunus.

Dedicated to killing Zelretch and Making sure that their known future doesn't collapse with all the butterflies that the old vampire seems to be releasing with every breath that he took, now the question was that why the hell did were they after me when Zelretch was not even here in the first place.

' _Futuristic soldiers, armed with unknown gear and possessing unknown capabilities,'_ my mind analyzed before deciding upon a solution, the most deadly of them all. _'one shot or strike Per kill, focus on the head and forget the heart because their armor is possibly far more superior to the reinforced bullet that you have in your gun, engage in close-quarter combat with Windbrynger due to its slashing and Wind sharpened capabilities, Finish it quickly and don't let them focus fire or corner you.'_

Decision made, I waited for the right time and moment before I felt the vibration in the air. Throwing my knife towards the place where I know I felt the vibration, I focused and instantly appeared in the area next to the my flying Thunder god knife while my target had aimed at the tombstone that I was in and immediately started to shoot it.

My enhanced eyes watched the bullets piercing the tombstone and then anything behind it, except that what I was focusing on were the small Runes that were etched and carved on the bullet, Runes that I had instantly recognized because I had designed and made them.

And in that moment, I instantly felt the fury that any Magi would rightfully feel when they find out that their hard-earned and difficult-mastered Magecraft secrets and mysteries had been stolen from them.

Call and color them however you want but no one can deny that every magus had to work and risk their lives constantly to advance their mysteries and researches. To find out that someone else had stolen them somehow and used your own work against you was a crime that was only punishable by death, an absolute Law that every Magi knew and respected to the deepest pits of their cores.

This was one of the reasons why a Magi never entered someone other Magi workshop without permission.

I was a person who valued life because of knowing that it was easy to die then to live, it takes a lot of fortitude for many to live their lives despite the hardships and pains that they will or have to constantly endure.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn't tempted to take joy in the death of those that had tried to kill me but such a thing was against the rules that I lived with. I took life and killed in the name of necessity and Must, I didn't allow myself to kill for things like Joy or anger.

That was the behavior of a psychopath and I was not a psychopath, never a psychopath.

I was a survivor.

When the unknown the invisible cloaking technology went away, it revealed the futuristic soldiers that I had heard Zelretch had sometimes talk about; Gray-armored combo-uniform pants with black military boots, a black body armor and made form unknown material with gloves and a helmet that covered the entire face.

' _black body-armor made from unknown materials… by stars and stones, Please don't tell me that these guys are from the future that Counter-guardian Emiya lived in some history of his life.'_ I mentally shuffled those thoughts somewhere else and focused on the matter at hand, throwing the knife high into the air towards the sky with one hand while aiming the pistol with the other one.

The sound of _'bang'_ that echoed the around clearing, the reinforced bullet pierced the helmet and it's wearer fall on the ground with a _thud_ as I instantly vanished and appeared in the air above the Cemetery.

Normally I would have reservations about appearing in the air because not even I have found a way to defy the laws of physics and gravity, but this instance was special and different others before.

I didn't exactly have a servant to catch me in the air before now, did I?

Strong feminine arms engulfed me from the back and held with such physical power that I didn't doubt for a moment that my enhanced ribs would be crushed within moments if Caster put the effort into it. The sound of firearms and gunfire echoed around the clearing as a storm of bullets regained down on my previous position, they were like sparks in the mist that I used to count the number of my enemies.

"Thirty-three soldiers," I informed the servant of Magic, "hell's bells, what did Zelretch do for me to have thirty-three futuristic soldiers after my head?"

"I don't doubt that it would be an interesting question but shouldn't we leave this place?" Caster looked down towards the mist-filled cemetery, "I see no reason for us to fight these assassins and wasting valuable time."

"I agree with you on that but unfortunately it's not that simple," I rectified that notion with cold-logic. "If we leave then these soldiers will likely go back to whence they came but they _will_ be back at a later date to finish their job, they will follow us to the ends of the galaxy." I said resolutely, "The only way to stop them is to send back in their equivalent of futuristic body-bags and even that is only a temporary solution."

But it should be enough to suffice for now until I will find a way to get my hands on Zelretch and then throttle the answers out of him through one way or another.

' _Caren,'_ I contact the grail war supervisor, _'are you out of the cemetery yet?'_

' _Yes,'_ Her Voice was ragged and a bit jumpy but otherwise she was doing fine.

' _Good, you're doing great.'_ The Military lessons that I had learned back in the day giving me the heads-up to stroke her confidence a bit and give her more reason to be calm and confident. _'Keep moving between the trees and avoid moving at a straight line, don't stop no matter what. I'll contact you once I have finished then we go home.'_ I added another touch just for safety before focusing on the problem at hand.

"Are the preparations ready?"

The smirk that appeared on my servant's lips was enough of an answer for me as she just simply snapped her finger and instantly my superhuman senses picked-up the sound of shuffling dirt as _Dragon Tooth-warriors_ came out of the dirt and started to charge towards the Koronus soldiers.

Their appearance was like that of a humanoid skeleton with the exception of the skull which was a big-shark like jaw, Their bone-swords looked to be a rapier with the exception that no metal had been used in its creation except for bone.

As the skeleton warriors rose from the dirt in groups, I watched as the Koronus soldiers immediately regrouped into a large circle with each of them covering one angle through the bullets of their guns. Even though their unloving adversaries charged towards them and would have overwhelmed them through sheer numbers had the soldiers not concentrated their weapon fires and not regrouped.

The soldiers proved their worth as they slowly started to tighten their large circle which gives them distance between them and the dragon tooth-warriors that kept coming from the ground.

Such a tactic would have proven to be a well sounded one except that I had employed a more lethal tactic to take care of these trained killers.

Said tactic had proven its effectiveness when a skeleton warrior jumped into a Koronus Soldier before exploding.

" **They're rigged with** **Suicide bombs!** "I heard one of them shout right before the dragoon tooth warriors swarmed towards their position, Exploding right after they threw themselves at them.

The most beautiful thing of it all was that these dragon tooth warriors were easily replaceable with the only thing that I would lose would the explosive-Rune Cards that I had given to caster before coming to the Fuykui Church.

And they were not even the tip of the iceberg.

"These lot seem to be particularly stubborn when it comes to dying, Caster." I let my teleportation dagger dissolve into tiny golden-Paraná pieces before using my now free hand to bring out a set of stacked papers. "Fortunately for us, I have a P.H.D When it comes to killing things that have the survivability of cockroaches."

Sending Parana energy towards the Runes on the pages, I quickly threw the stack of papers down into the air where they instantly were engulfed by white smokes who released the Explosive-Rune cards within them. Ten became twenty then thirty before they landed upon the circle of soldiers.

This time, it was my turn to snap my fingers and watch the fireworks as the explosive-rune cards landed on the circle of the shooting soldiers before they exploded with the kinetic force of a cannon ball.

The sounds of 'boom' that echoed around the clearing were so loud that I wouldn't have doubted for a second it would have attracted unwanted attention except for the bounded field that kept the noise within the cemetery and stopped it from reaching beyond.

The sound was so loud that I had to resort to covering my own ears as I watched the cards do their intended Work, when was over. There was no sound of gunfire and neither was there any sound of movement, there was just Silence.

Like the battle that had raged just a few moments ago had not happened at all with the only evidence being the carters and the chunks of tombstone rock and dirt that were upturned. The large carter under us was just the biggest evidence that I could easily see from up here, but still I did not lower my guard.

I had seen a lot of good-ones go when they lowered their guard and thought the enemy was defeated until they were killed by a sudden shot that proved them wrong.

The only way for me to lower my guard was to see my enemy's corpse and then leave the battlefield, going into a safe-place where I knew I had something solid and defendable between me and my enemies. Paranoia was a half-blood's best friend; it could prove to be the one thing that keeps you alive where you would have otherwise died.

"Send a few skeletons to sweep the area, just in case there is any more left for us to take care of…" barely had the words left my mouth that I saw a small hand-size object being thrown into the air, circle in shape with a very small circle antenna sticking out from the top of it.

The scream that came out of caster's mouth as I saw her body dissolved into Paraná clarified for me that whatever the object had been, it had been designed specifically to be used against Servant-Class Enemies.

' _Close combat it is then,'_ I decided when I focused upon my teleportation knife….

Only to find out that I couldn't effectively trace it due to something interfering with the process of Parana turning into Metal, I suddenly decided that it was time to do what any other man would have done in my place.

"Shit!" I cursed as my body fell into the ground, aiming my pistol at the device that I internally named 'Parana Disruptioner', I shot the remaining bullets at it before bracing myself as I landed on ground with impact.

Throwing the now empty pistol into the air, I used my enhanced speed to grab the nearest soldier near me and then put his back into the ground through a good judo throw before quickly brining my knee down on his neck which broke with an audible _'Snap'_.

Quickly putting my foot on the corpse and using it like a spring-board, I jumped towards the left of the air, grabbing my still thrown pistol through my enhanced reflexes before quickly using my other hand to bring out a clip and reload.

Reloading and Aiming a pistol while still being in air was a very difficult feat but surprisingly manageable once you have enhanced reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

' _BANG'_

' _BANG'_

Two heads were pierced each with a shot before I landed roughly on a grave before quickly putting my hand on the grave-stone and reinforce it to the utmost limit as bullets started to fly towards me.

' _Shirou, Concentrate on your ring!'_ I heard Caren suddenly speak through our telepathic Medium.

' _A bit busy here, Caren.'_ I answered, taking cover before aiming the iron-sight of my gun on a visible knee and shooting it. The bullet didn't penetrate the soldier's advanced uniform or armor but it made him stumble forward which allowed me to put a bullet into his head.

' _Just Do it and ready every Ounce of Parana that you have!'_ the supervisor shouted with such intensity.

Gritting my teeth, I brought out a small pill out of my pouch and put it into my mouth. _'Fine, but whatever you're doing, it better be quick!'_

Instantly I started to feel a sudden Energy coursing through me as my Magic Circuits started to brim with Parana while I put a Rune-card on my reinforced grave-stone Cover. The Card started to glow ominously before it suddenly started to let out flame from the back of it that turned the reinforced stone into some kind of an improvised missile that shot towards the two pair of soldiers that were advancing towards me while their comrades laid down suppressive fire on me.

The stone hit the pair squarely into the chests with enough force to throw them both back to the ground while I was already moving, my last bullet were put into the nearest downed soldier's head before I let go of the pistol and instead quickly put them on the nearby grave-stone, pulling the stone out through a feat only manageable through enhanced superhuman strength before quickly using to bash the head of the second fallen soldier who's skull shattered under the reinforced improvised club before I quickly knelt covered myself with it as the bullets started to fly once again.

Catching my breath again, I mentally ran over the list of injuries that I had sustained while moving to the right to avoid getting outflanked.

Lungs on fire with the occasional pain that I felt within my chest, if I hadn't spent time and dedication to make sure the vests were imbued with magical properties then I was sure that they wouldn't have stopped the bullets that had hit me in the chest.

Though they had been stopped, the pain would be a memorable One.

' _Now!'_ if Caren's sudden yelling had surprised me, what happened next caught me off-guard when I felt neither one nor two or three but _six_ new connections forming them-selves on me while they took my Parana as energy to establish themselves.

The pain that they left in their wake was agonizing as if someone had taken a molten iron and branded me on the back with it. My the sole-command seal on the forearm was glowing in deep red before it suddenly expanded like roots into my arm until they had come at high as my Neck.

' _Master, Move quickly!'_ Caster's warning came just right in time to bring me out of my sudden distraction and cause me to quickly throw myself back into a pair of grave-stone covers before a very large shower of light covered the previous place that I was.

Watching helplessly as Stone was dissolved and the ground was scorched with brimstone.

" _Laser weaponry, they have access to laser weapons!"_ I instantly decided that it was time to go big or go to the grave, _'Caster, fall back!'_

It was times like these that I wished that my Servant's stores of Mana were not depleted. When summoned by the Greater grail, the heroic spirit that was summoned would not only be placed within a class-container but would also gain a Mana-Core which was filled with Parana through the transformation of the land's Parana into the Servant's Core.

It was ridiculous to think that a single magus would be able to give a servant all the needed Parana to active a noble phantasm, such a thing was beyond the capability of even magicians because the cost and consummation of Parana was so high that the Magus would have a ninety-nine percent chance of fatal injury or even death.

That was one of the reasons why the land that the Tohsaka had contributed to the creation of the grail wars had been so vital. Its Parana rich quality would suffice to not only provides the servants with their needed Parana upon summoning but it would also give the grail the needed Magical energy to even begin the summoning process.

In her state of having access to tremendous amount of Mana, Caster could have used Anti-Army Spells which she could use to lay waste to armies; she could have even temporary enhanced a certain teacher's physical attributes so high that he had been able to go toe-to-toe with a Saber-class servant.

Unfortunately for my rotten demigod-luck, it turns out that she couldn't do anything of those with her Mana-stores being currently at such low-capacity.

Hence the reason I couldn't use her servant abilities or attack-power.

If I could have used those, this fight would have been over a long time ago.

"God almighty, I'm so _sick_ of Tuesdays." I cursed for perhaps the fifth-time before my eyes looked up to the sky and saw the Parana disruptor still hovering in the air even with the bullets that I had put into it.

' _It's somehow disrupting the flow of Parana, that damn thing has to go.'_ I brought a Wind rune-card before throwing it towards my target like a shuriken, the Runes on the edge of the card glowed until a layer of Wind sharp-Parana coated its edges.

The Wind-Rune shrunken Card slashed the Parana disruptor into pieces….

Just in time for me to project my teleportation Dagger and throw it left before focusing and teleporting myself away as I a saw a sudden light appearing in my vision, when I appeared in my intended destination, I looked to the scorched earth that would have turned into my own personal grave if I had stayed there any longer.

' _Caren, I can't attack Without Parana.'_ I activated the wedding ring on my finger, _'Damn it Woman, what the heck are you doing?!'_

I was forced to bite my own tong to avoid screaming in pain when I felt a huge cluster of my Parana Levels being taken away while the left hand literally felt as if it was on fire.

It was then that I had time to look at them that I recognized them to be _Command Seals_.

"Gaaah!" a bullet hit me in the shoulder of the vest, it didn't pierce me but the kinetic energy made me hit my back as I quickly threw a rune card into the air which exploded into a cloud of black-smoke.

Holding my breath, I quickly threw my teleportation knife and teleported away as a storm of bullets literally tried to Pierce me with the Laser-weapon that I saw being held by a soldier like a Rocket Launcher.

' _Now caster,'_ I give the signal to my servant, who had fallen back a few moments ago to prepare the next set of surprises.

The dirt shuffled once more as the next Wave of Dragon tooth warriors came out of them, only this time they were bigger and inch by inch of their bone body was covered by small glowing Magical Runes. Their bone-swords were no exception that were being used to cut into the soldiers as if their futuristic armor was butter, it was comforting to know that the sharpness of wind can be used against opponents with advanced armor that did not belong at this age.

Of course any comfort and confidence that I had was turned into horror as I watched a sudden rip appear upon reality itself. Glowing faintly blue before it stabilized itself in form of a portal that opened and brought forth reinforcements for my enemies.

My horror-turned-anger was not just directed at that but also at the knowledge that I knew the mechanisms or perhaps even the creation behind that _Portal_ ; it was one of my creations and projects after all. my very own invention and creation turned against me.

' _Important note: run a check on the security of your Magecraft research and find out how the hell did you're hidden projects ended-up in the hands of a future association or clock-tower.'_ I added another question to the long list of questions that I wanted to ask the wizard marshal before quickly seeing the opportunity in the distraction the skeleton warriors had given me by drawing the attention of time-traveling soldiers and their reinforcements.

Throwing my knife once again but this time towards one of the trees within the forest, a moment later I appeared in my intended destination and grabbed the knife before quickly starting to run away from the cemetery.

' _Activate it, caster.'_ Grabbing my still throbbing arm, I started to run away the opposite direction of the cemetery.

Pushing my leg-muscles to the height of speed that I could manage, not looking back as I heard the sound of a large-explosion. The added force of every rune-card that I had put into the cemetery before coming to the church and those who I had placed after it only made the sound bigger and more ear piercing.

The shockwave threw me forward with such force that I hit the trunk of a tree with my right side before gravity did the rest and I fell on the ground. The worst thing for me was the fact that the new six-connections that I was feeling were unstable and unrefined while the drain on my magical circuits were becoming more noticeable.

' _Shirou, you need to…'_

Whatever Caren was supposed to say was lost to me as I tried to get up before quickly throwing myself to the right to as a sudden light came uncomfortably close. I looked up towards the source of the laser and my current hate and anger, _her_ armor was a lot more different from other Koronus soldiers.

It covered her whole-body with dark-black plates including her head which was covered by a black helmet with a white visor.

"Okay, I admit: it takes _guts,_ " something within me which had stretched like rubber when I learned that my want-to-be killers were using my own work against me finely _snapped_. "You steal a man's work, reverse-engineer it and then use the product to kill the real owner. You people are a real piece of work." I glared intensely at the figure, "I won't ask why the hell you are trying to kill me, that ship had _sailed_ the moment that you fired the first bullet. But I swear by my father's grave that I will hurt you for this," I swore with an absolute tone, "a day will come when you all think that you are safe and happy, and in that day, I will turn everything that you love and care about into ashes along with the precious _future_ that you fight so hard to protect. This debt that you owe me, I will make you pay for it by _blood_ and _Tears_."

" **Then all the more reason to kill you now,"** a warped-heavy distorted voice answered me before I saw a blur coming towards me…

Right before stopping as she took another step Due to the long Black needle like dagger piercing her shadow, Having advanced futuristic armor did not mean that you had no shadow and were immune to a weapon designed and made for a sole-reason to act as a shadow anchor to capture opponents with high physical attributes.

 _Shadow Piercer_ was the type of weapon which I used to capture targets alive but It was also the kind of solution that I will use to pin fast opponents down and then deal with them as I saw fit.

Getting up, I quickly brought out my phone and took a picture of the frozen figure before pocketing it. I will need that proof to convince the wizard marshal to meet me and give me the answers that he's due for.

"Congratulations, Koronus." Windbrynger appeared in my left hand, "in trying to deal with an enemy, you created two more."

With just a simple slash of my sword, I watched as my would have been killer instead become the one who is instead killed before quickly turning away and start running towards Caren's position. The blood spelled on the ground and on my projected blade did not concern me much as I passed trees and made sure to not move in straight lines.

Under other circumstances, I would have broken an arm or leg but the sad fact was that mercy was not a luxury that I could afford here within my current situation. If I let these soldiers live, they will come back after me for more.

The reality of the situation was that the only way to stop them was to take care of them on a more _permanent_ level.

Life was precious, it won't come back once it's gone or taken but it was an unfortunate truth that we sometimes were forced to make the hard-choice so that others don't have to. These futuristic soldiers proved that they were willing to attack when I was in the presence of someone else, what is there to guarantee that they will not attack me in some way when I am in a public place full of unrelated bystanders?

Deciding things about my own life is one thing but I had no right to risk the lives of others who were living separate lives then I was and had nothing to do with what I was facing now and struggling against.

The moonlit world is not a gentle or kind-world by any stretch of imagination, those who lived outside of it might not have the powers and abilities of a Magi or it's denizens but at least they could live their lives in peace without being afraid of ending up becoming the stepping stone of another Magi or food to a phantasmal-class creature.

' _Excuses and excuses, one after another,'_ a cynical voice whispered at the back of my mind, _'the simple fact is that you, Shirou Fraga, are a monster guilty of a more monstrous crime: being a man who wants to survive in a world full of those that want to kill him in one way or another. You were never a protector and neither a savior, you're talents lie elsewhere.'_

I knew the voice and despite the bite that was within those words, I took them like how a thirsty man takes to water. It didn't do anything for my current anger but it did wonders to remind me that the truth while still bitter and sour, it was a lot better than being encouraged by false-words and lies.

I much preferred the harsh reality rather than an illusion of goodness made by lies of encouragement. I long ago accepted who I was, for the world surely would not. I had made it my strength so that it couldn't be turned into my weakness, armed and armored myself in it so that no one could use it to hurt me.

Those words, piercing as they were, didn't even matter to me one bit because they were telling me something which I knew a long time ago.

' _Shirou, I need you to come here now!'_ Caren's voice was like a blessing sent from haven. _'We don't have much time, you need to come at once or else we both will be in trouble!'_

Rather than answering or presenting my own questions, I simply jumped high onto a branch and then jumped towards another with the location which I could feel Caren's telepathic signal is coming from in my mind.

With my stores of Parana being brought so low and my situation as chaotic as it is, I decided that it was best to hope that Caren had something cooked-up that could get us out of this pear-shaped mess, otherwise we'll had to _improvise_.

And I was so angry that I didn't think I will be able to look pass the fact that I had risked my life on running out of Parana at the middle of a life and death situation where I can get shot at.

Sure enough, my enhanced hearing picked-up the sound of boots slamming into the ground.

Koronus really wanted me _dead_ if they were willing to send so many guns full of bullets after me, just my luck that a force made to go after Zelretch's head would instead change targets to come after my own head, The fact that they were named 'Koronus' only was a middle-finger from fate itself.

' _These men are tenacious and stubborn at best,'_ Caster's voice was irradiated and angry; I could perfectly relate to that emotion because I was currently feeling it myself. _'What does it take to make them understand that they are to leave? More importantly, those command seals upon your arm...'_

' _I know, caster.'_ I snapped with an angry voice before taking a deep breath to calm myself, _'sorry, just let me handle this shit then we can talk afterwards. Preferably somewhere that I'm not getting shot at.'_

As a certain maiden had said, there was no such thing as free miracles. Everything has a price attached to it and I had learned as a demigod that the concept of 'free lunch' doesn't exist.

I didn't knew how those command seals had appeared on my arm but I knew that Caren had something to do with it, This women had the detective skills of Sherlock Holmes and the intellect of a dangerous highly intelligent woman.

There was a reason for her actions and I had learned that while Caren could be called many things, she was not stupid or idiotic.

' _Shirou,'_ Caren's voice was now alarmingly desperate; The Connections that I was feeling at the back of my head were slowly falling apart, _'I can't hold it much longer.'_

Landing on the ground, my eyes instantly saw the supervisor who quickly Ran-towards me. I saw a small-shape in her left hand before she brought it forward and put it upon my chest, too-late did I realize that the said small-shape was a _card_.

' _Click,'_ it felt like a sudden switch had been flipped at the back of my mind, a sudden energy invaded my body. It felt like as if my whole muscles were set on fire as the Parana taken from me was used to invade my body and my Magical circuits who had to strain themselves as they had to process the double amount of Parana while also somehow expanding their capacity…

Right before I felt my senses scream at me to get-down, despite the pain that I felt. I grabbed Caren and then promptly both of us into the ground and not just too soon did I feel the familiar tail-tell sign of laser-light glow form at the top of us.

Looking back towards the source, I was treated to the sight of another futuristic-armor wearing individual. This one was male in gender and his armor-seemed to be more bulky in terms of mass and fire-power, if the laser-weapon that was attached to the shoulder was any indication.

Already, I saw the smoking point of the weapon being slowly turned towards us and I did not hesitate to project a hovering Windbrynger which flew towards the figure. I had been ready for him to dodge but somehow My Eyes predicted that move to an even more through Field while my mind examined the _possibilities_.

Information flooded my mind in such a way that it was both-familiar and both-horrifying in equal-measure.

' _ **And here I wake-up only to find you facing down a futuristic looking opponent,'**_ a certain white-haired archer-class servant, _**'my luck may have been E-ranked but yours is defiantly so low that it has earned a class of its own.'**_

' _No.'_ I answered while mentally directing my floating sword which instantly hit the laser-weapon, _'not you, not here, not now!'_

I could practically feel the red-shroud that slowly started to form on my other hand which did not possess the command-seals.

' _ **Here, let me take care of that problem for you.'**_ I heard the white-haired counter-guardian say right before I suddenly felt being thrown at the back-seat equivalent of my own body and mind, no longer being on the driver's seat.

Just like I remembered, he did not hesitate to use his two-word aria which activated his Magecraft, "Trace On."

My eyes-his eyes instantly landed upon the futuristic armor, information flooded our combined mind as we both processed the history of the created armor in front of us. It was like we were there when Koronus Scientists and _Magi_ both built the suit inch by inch and plate after plate, Their Method of manufacturing, the weaknesses within the created frame. The strain and focus within the metal-plating where the operative would be placed and will be able to operate the highly-advanced armor which was twice the weight of perhaps a German tank and fifty-times more complex and hard to make too.

His long-curved black-bow appeared in his right hand just as a arrow appeared in his other-hand. It was small and pointy in shape with its tip glowing-fiercely sharp even from this angle; the counter-guardian-turned-servant notched the arrow with such speed that one could expect from one of the three-knight class servants.

His arrow flew straight and true, hitting the soft-weakness spot between the plate and the pressure pad under it. It was a testament to Emiya's skill as a archer and his capability as a servant of the bow that that the traced arrow went-in the arrow due to the kinetic force behind it and punched right through to the operative's cockpit before exploding into sharpened fragments that no doubt killed the man within the armor.

Not wasting time, the counter-guardian traced a silvery-metallic spiraling sword.

My figurative-eyes widened in horror as the counter-guardian notched the sword and slowly turned it into a figurative-spiraling like arrow through application of reinforcement. Its tip pointed towards the mass of futuristic soldiers that still had at least one kilometer to reach us.

"Caladbolg," the words escaped my/our lips caused the noble-phantasm sword-turned arrow to somehow activate itself as if someone had suddenly pushed a button and armed a nuclear missile and _justly so_ too.

' _Don't…'_

The servant of the bow let-go and the Caladbolg the spiraling sword _Flew_ , Spinning Faster and faster-twisting and warping reality and space itself as it pierced everything in its path with the first being the trees and then the soldiers in its path before it exploded right at the middle of all the Koronus soldiers.

The shockwave was so pushing that archer fell on his back with Caren -the smart women that she is- already have thrown herself to the ground and covered her head with her hands.

' _Shoot,'_ I finished before quickly wrestling for control of my own body and throwing Archer to my previous place through a good figurative kick at the back. Instantly the shroud that had slowly started to cover my entire arm dissolved into a wave of Parana alongside the black-bow in my hand.

" _ **You're welcome by the way."**_

"Lorelei is going to kill me," I ignored the servant's voice and instead focused on the obvious; "how the fuck am I going to explain to her that I just used a wide mass-destruction noble-phantasm right at board daylight and right in the city which is being closely watched by the Japanese government?"

"… _ **.blame Zelretch?"**_

With just those two-words, I suddenly felt my own face implode.

It was nice to know that Archer hadn't lost his touch and edge when it came to using words.

 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

 _ **AN: happy new year everybody, though I can't exactly say the same for myself because the previous year had been a hard-year but hopefully this one will be a lot more better than the previous one. New Anime are being released including Fate/Extra and Overlord, and hopefully other better shows that are just waiting to be watched, my advice is to watch them if you are interested.**_

 _ **Now regarding the story:**_

 _ **I have been sent a lot of PM Lately that are asking when I'm going to release the new chapter for this project, to those of you who don't know, I have just started a Percy Jackson Crossover with Warhammer 40k project with the first chapter already published and the second one being in route of being finished as we speak.**_

 _ **College and lessons are proving to be a challenge for me but I'll manage, somehow. So don't worry about any of my stories being abandoned because they won't be.**_

 _ **Many of you asked if Archer will be deleted from this story and won't be making any kind of appearance, well there you go: do I look like the author who is going to ignore the first-placed and the most voted character within Type-moon Wiki? No, I hope you don't see me that way.**_

 _ **In here I have also featured Caren Hortensia who never made any appearance in the original fate/stay night anime to begin with; she is going to have a direct place as one of the main-characters within The Main Characters caste (spoilers!) so you can be sure that she has her own roles and plots to fill.**_

 _ **The next chapter is going to take a lot of work and ground-up because I can guarantee all of you that this project is not going to be like the other fate/stay night works that you have ever heard.**_

 _ **And if anyone of you thinking about the obvious and think it is true… then let me give you a tip: no, Shirou Emiya is not OP or Gray-sue. You will find out the why in the next chapter.**_

 _ **Thank you reading and see you until next time, Titan of War.**_

 _ **Word-counts for this chapter is: 19,772**_


	4. Chapter 3: The Maker and the Faker

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Fate stay night, Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the heroes of Olympus and other works.

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 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

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 _ **Chapter 3**_

If somebody asked me about how to use ability or any kind of power, I would instantly answer in two words which I had always adored and respected: Total Mastery.

It didn't matter what kind of power or skill you had, it also didn't matter how diverse or limited it might be. mastery was mastery, having complete and total mastery over you're skills and powers meant that you were a cut and cloth above those who weren't willing to spend the time to practice and learn more about their powers or their spheres of skills.

It is not something that could be achieved at single day and it will take a tremendous amount of time, effort and determination. But at the end, the rewards were totally _worth it_.

I had tasted such rewards and through them I had defeated enemies either mortal or said to be immortal, Killed things which others believed to be un-killable and defeated things that were labeled impossible to defeat.

It was through the same mastery that I was able fully utilize my reality marble without needing to utter a long ten-verse spell which the original Shirou Emiya had to use in order to fully utilize his reality marble. Within the inner-layer of infinite blade works, I was omnipotent and undefeatable. I had mastered my own inner world to a state where I can even control concepts of Creation, space and time within it through nothing more than bare _thought_.

Through the same mastery, I'm able take a seat somewhere within my workshop within the Fuyuki Fraga estate, close my eyes and be able to visit the infinite blade works without any kind of previous preparations or difficulty.

So when I found the man who could trace and call-upon countless amounts of noble phantasm armaments, I didn't felt an ounce of fear or dread that many would have felt in my place. For What else can you feel when you stand a few feet away from the man who can trace a golden spear that upon wounding you will never let you heal or a crimson spear which can let you cancel anything 'magical' through nothing more than contact?

For all of his ability and power, the man in front of me couldn't be called a heroic spirit for that would imply that he had ascended into the throne of heroes and such a thing had not happened. The man that was once called Shirou Emiya….he was a counter-guardian, a cog within the machine which is called Alaya, the hidden consciousness of humanity which had been born for mankind's deep intent of survival.

To be a counter-guardian, is to be a machine of destruction that is sent to wreak slaughter and death so that mankind could be saved as a whole at the expense of the death of a small minority.

To become a counter-guardian, one needed to make a contract with the will of humanity manifested.

And Shirou Emiya of some other alternative reality had done that, all for the ideals and goals which ended up with him joining the rank of Alaya's counter-force.

When I had been watching the show, I had grabbed a white-paper and had wrote down the list of characters who in my opinion were the most dangerous and the most powerful, Counter guardian Emiya's Rank had been the first in the list and remained the most dangerous one even though I had checked the type moon wiki and looked towards the list of characters and their abilities within it.

The counter guardian Called EMIYA had been ranked as first-place Because in a world where there was a king of heroes who had access to treasury which surpassed even his own memory, where a single man could avoid death seven-times and grow immune to the attack which he had received or a blue-haired child of Ireland that could use his red spear to perform an absolute attack which can pierce the heart no matter in how many impossible angles….Emiya's Rank as a dangerous opponent in my opinion had been Deserving and without question.

He had a reality marble and access to infinite amount of noble phantasm weaponry with each having at least one _Conceptual power_. This killing machine was so dangerous and powerful that it outclassed even Gilgamesh when it came to his aptitude for versatility and tactical ingenuity.

No matter how many times he uses his treasury, the king of heroes had a glaring weakness called pride.

Emiya didn't have such a thing; he was the most dangerous type of man because he had everything to gain and nothing to lose, not even his ideals and goals were left for him.

Or at least, that's what I had learned and seen from this version of counter-guardian Emiya.

And now that I was looking to the man-turned-counter-guardian and then into a servant, I couldn't help but wonder if it was really a coincidence that he had awakened from his slumber due to Caren's ritual of implementing a servant class-card into me.

If an outsider looked toward me and Counter Emiya, they would be hard-pressed to deny that we looked like twins identical to each other.

Where I wore a dark-black business suit with a black Vest and a Red Cravat around my neck, Emiya wore a black body-armor that covered chest with dark-black pants and steel-tipped boots. His two arms were covered by a blood-red shroud with a coat like appearance of the shroud hanging from the back of his belt and covering his rear.

"Been a long-time, hasn't?" Emiya mused, leaning against a sword of five-foot tall which was lean with its blade being black like darkness and its handle decorated by a ruby-red jewel. "when I woke-up, I had expected you to be on your deathbed just as we both had planned, yet I find myself seeing possibly a copy of myself walking around the world and changing the fate of those who I had seen going through the same end over and over again."

I didn't say a word because the counter guardian had been within me for a long and long time, I had Allowed him access to some of my memories just as he had given me the same deal in order to prove to each other that the opposite individual was not the one who each of us thought he would be.

He had access to some Memories that I had and knew about the events that had happened during his 'Sleep' so to speak. Through seeing his eyes, I knew that he was less than pleased just as I was.

"Do you remember the promise that you give me before I was forced into hibernation sleep at the end of the apostle war?" the counter guardian stood straight, looking to the gray skies of the infinite blade works as if he was looking for words that could give the answers for his questions, "I don't blame you for breaking it because I _Saw_ through you're memories that you did you're best to make sure that they wouldn't enter this damned ritual. Sadly, it seems that was not enough."

While I had come here to have a direct face-to-face conversation, I decided to make time to at least lend an ear and listen.

I kept my silence and continued listening to the counter-guardian's bitter tone. For what else could I do for a man who wished for things to at least just go different, to witness a different fate for those who he cared about, and to see his loved ones take some other step and make different choices that will lead to something better than previously?

The anime show hadn't shown it and had treated the servant called Archer like a plot factor towards the main protagonist that is Shirou Emiya of the present but for someone who had interacted many times with the Servant who had been summoned secretly during the apostle war and placed within me, I knew that the man had feelings and regrets and emotions just like any other.

It was easy for many to forget that once-upon a time, the counter guardian called Emiya had been a boy called Shirou Emiya, Saved by his adopted father while being an empty-shell devoid of any past or memory of his possibly dead family or relatives.

He may have been cynical; he may have given-up on his Goals and ideals but the white-haired man had been an auburn-red haired boy who had fought with a black haired twin-pigtailed girl and had spent time with a girl called 'Sakura Matou', he had bonds and memories after his world's version of the fifth holy grail war with many, he had even been in _love_ just like I was.

The only difference is that his was destroyed through determination of following his ideals while mine ended by a spear thrust into my chest.

"I knew it was too much to hope that at least Rin and sakura would stay out of the fifth grail war but this?" Emiya was now pacing left and right, his mind no doubt going numb as he processed the same information that I did after managing to reach my house with Caren and pointedly ask her a few uncomfortable questions which answers had been nothing short then a revelation for me. "How could things be so different, so bizarre and _wrong_ in so many ways _?_ " archer's next question was pointed as one of his preferable arrows, "how did it happen-No, _when_ did it happen?"

Once again, I knew that the counter-guardian had access to my memories and even the most recent ones but he wanted to hear the answer straight out of my own lips because this world no longer made any sense to him just like it didn't do so for me.

How exactly should I answer about the information that Caren had 'kindly' revealed to me a day ago?

"Did something like this happen to your world or timeline?" I asked while mentally wondering on which angle I should look towards the knowledge that I had gained. It was a novel feeling to now understand my centaur teacher's words about knowledge; the burden that it places upon the shoulders was sometimes back breaking to the bone.

Archer scowled at me as if he was seeing something incomprehensible, "you mean if the masters within the fifth grail war had been installed with Servant Class-cards? No, I have never seen anything like this. Alaya Damn it all…" he muttered the last words under his breath before continuing, "no matter how complicated, everything has a beginning. This had to have started from _somewhere_ …"

"Romania, it all had started in Romania." I clarified after a bit of thinking. "and it's all because of one terrifying fact which is now going to haunt every Master within the holy grail war." the next words that came out of my mouth were so solemn as if I was declaring the end of the world and it was the terrible truth for some of us, it really was the end of the world because this would be the straw that will finely break this camel's back. "The command seals have lost their potency; they are no longer absolute commands which we all thought they were."

"…And you seriously believe that?"

"What I believe is irrelevant at this point, Emiya." I responded with a flat-look, "Personally, I think that Zuken Matou's death may have had more consequences then anyone really had thought about. Like command seals losing their absoluteness, as a Master in Romania learned when he summoned berserker and ended-up getting squashed like a pancake when he failed to control the servant."

Zuken Matou may have been a disgusting-worm long overdue for the grave but no one could deny that the man had been one of the three founders of the heaven's feel ritual. he was one of the few who fully understood the ritual's systems and had enough knowledge about it to recognize its flaws and manipulate them to some unknown extents, that was why he knew how to change the summoning chant of the servant summoning ritual in order to summon a specific class of servant for the Matou during the fourth holy grail war.

Somewhere within the future now changed due to his Demise and absence, the man-turned-parasite must have done something to keep the grail system functioning at peak capacity. but with his death, it seems that the heaven's feel Grail system and its functions had slowly started to fall apart, Starting with command seals and no doubt continuing with who knows what other things.

The death of Zuken Matou at the hands of kirei kotomine changed the future and not in the good way, never have I thought that I would ever put those words together in my thoughts.

"That still doesn't explain why the church decided to put class-cards into the masters." Emiya's observation made me release a tired sigh, reminding me that for all of his skills and ingenuity, he had never really dabbled into the mind-numbing Politics of the clock-tower.

Deep in his core, the man was still Shirou Emiya and sometimes tended to rush at things without thinking them through. He was not stupid but sometimes he could be a bit slow on the upkeep.

"Archer, think about it. What happens When Command seals that are one of the ways which masters can control their servants lose their power?" I presented the question from another angle and was rewarded with the servant suddenly understanding what it all meant in realization of what a nightmare it was.

"Shit," the reserved and normally static man which was Emiya immediately cursed once he saw the same picture that I had seen.

"I don't think that's even going to describe it, my bow-wielding friend." This time it was my turn to pace from left and right in order to alleviate a little bit of stress that I was feeling, "Command seals are the only thing which a master can use in order to forcefully control their servant and prevent them from doing something Drastic, Like unleashing their noble phantasm and leveling an entire city block into pieces. With them losing their effectiveness, we _masters_ ," I gestured towards myself with the thumb of my left hand, "Might as well pack our bags and leave because frankly, there is no way we can hope to stop a servant from unleashing a anti-army noble phantasm at the middle of a City short of severing the master-servant link between us and stop acting as their anchors to this world." I stopped pacing and rubbed my forehead tiredly to stave-off a bad headache which has been following me yesterday. "Even with the class-cards within each of us, our bodies are still human; we only have Fifty percent of a heroic spirit's physical prowess and access to their noble phantasms. But even that will not be enough to stop a determined servant from overpowering us both in terms of sheer power and strength."

"That can't be all of it," Emiya immediately demonstrated the fact why I valued his often times cynical words and advices, that and I considered underestimating his intellect and experience to be a grave mistake, "Power does not come free and neither does it come cheap, what's the Price?"

Now that's a tricky question if I were to be of any judge, from what way am I even supposed to open that particular can of worms?

"The ritual of implementing a class-card has a seventy-five percent Chance of immediate violent Death due to the introduction of a foreign energy to a Magus's body and magical circuits," I started from one of the reasons why the relationship between my-self and Caren was now very tense and frosty if not directly hostile. "Once implemented, the class-card is fully absorbed into the host's body and immediately start the process of change by three stages which will come in time," I held out three fingers bore continuing, "Stage one: the host's mind starts to slowly process the information and experience the experiences of the heroic spirit which has been used in order to create the class-card, from life experiences to even day to day activity which has been done by that particular heroic spirit."

I brought down one finger before continuing, "Stage two: the host's body slowly starts to adapt at the foreign energy and convert the foreign Parana as energy to gradually increase its container's physical and mental capacities from molecular to genetic levels including but not limited to Change of skin, hair or even body structure. The container's physiology as a whole will slowly start to change and will stop at an unknown point."

Finely, I brought down another finger until only the last one remained. Looking down for a bare moment to make sure my composure was still there before I returned my gaze to the servant within me.

"Stage three is the last of the stages and the most terrifying one: the Container's psychology and Personality will slowly start to be combined with that of the heroic spirit used to create the class-card to an unknown level of degree." I finished with a solemn tone, and for the first time I saw horrified realization appear on the servant of the bow's face.

In layman's terms, the one who manages to survive the ritual of the class-card implementation will never be the same ever again after the passing of the three stages.

You're old self dies and you will slowly become a new person with different but perhaps similar ideologies and personalities to even a new way of thinking.

"Other side-affects also are present, of course. Things such as possible development of secondary personalities and…"

"…how were those class-cards created?" Archer immediately cut off my explanation with his own question; his eyes were closed as if he was contemplating something.

"You can thank our good-old friend Zelretch; he's the one who presented them both to the clock-tower and the church. Give the finish product to them with an instruction manual," I explained, "If you want to know more about their creation then that… well, we'll have to find Zelretch and I can guarantee that you that we will have to wait in a very long line to have a _conversation_ with him even if we do manage to find that bearded bastard."

After all, I had no doubt that Rin and Luvia were now scouring every rock and house that they knew to find out their old-teacher. I would have paid to have seen their reaction to being tricked into jumping into a rabbit hole as deep as this but truthfully, I didn't want any more Drama since yesterday.

Hence the reason why I had uploaded my recorded-phone conversation with Zelretch to Caren's phone and give her a letter to deliver to the Tohsaka residence. She had left half an hour ago after eating breakfast to meet with sakura, she must have delivered the letter and the phone conversation by now.

"Which Class-card are you currently embodying and what is the name of its heroic spirit?" Emiya Suddenly asked me, his voice soft but dangerously intense.

"That's…" I tried to answer before pausing and then choosing two words which dealt the fewer amounts of headaches for me, "It's Complicated."

"Then simplify it," archer said as if it was as simple as the words that he used.

"It's _Zelretch-class complicated_ ," I clarified with no small amount of exasperation, "there is no simplifying something like that."

Giving up on words, I flicked my hand and Windbrynger landed on the ground in front of me as if someone had suddenly thrown the sword like a javelin, plucking the sword off of the ground. I pierced the air in front of me with its tip before I started to move the sword into a series of strikes and strokes; once I was done, I stood beside archer and gestured towards the black inky words floating upon the air.

Once again proud of my full mastery of my own reality marble that allowed me do feats such as this within it without any semblance difficulty, such mastery was something that Shirou Emiya would never achieve because he was not the true owner of all the continents within his reality marble. Copies of the original ones or not, the noble phantasm armaments within the unlimited blade works was never Shirou Emiya's and never will be.

I on the other hand, am the true owner of my own reality Marble.

I had developed and made all of its continents, Mastered all of them and their abilities within the reality marble through tremendous effort colored in pain-sticking sweat and difficult tears. Time manipulation was also another ability which I could use within the inner-layer of my reality marble, making it in a way which 10 years can pass within here and yet only an hour might pass within the real-world.

Many may say that it was impossible to fully master every weapon within a single life-time, the dedication and time needed for one to fully master even one single type of weapon was very time-consuming but practicing and mastering all manners of weaponry? It was impossible; none could truly manage such a thing because there were limits even to talent and dedication yet I had managed to do so all thanks to the mastery of my own inner world that had given me the opportunity to do so.

And despite having such an accomplishment, I didn't feel any kind of pride from it because I knew and had seen many do the same thing without the use of even a reality Marble. Lancelot the greatest knight of the roundtable was one such example who had become legendary for his battle-prowess, so famous and known that he had gained even a noble phantasm called _knight of honor_ , a noble phantasm that allowed him to turn anything into his own noble phantasm armament if the concept of being 'weapon' could be applied to it.

And the knight of the Lake's name was not the only that had entered the list of weapon masters and I personally knew quite a few of them that I knew stood a serious chance of rivaling and even suppressing the wielder of the Arondight.

"…is this a joke?" the incredulously within Archer's voice was palpable, his eyes blinking more than once in what I managed to recognize as futile effort to comprehend something that they could not understand in the first place, "because if it is, then I'm definitely not laughing."

I looked towards the words which I had made before shaking my head to indicate that it wasn't a joke, at all:

 _ **Name: Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan**_

 _ **Personality Alignment: Chaotic Neutral**_

 _ **Class: Saber**_

 _ **Gender: Male**_

 _ **Height/Weight: 187cm/78kg**_

 _ **Strength: A**_

 _ **Endurance: A**_

 _ **Agility: B**_

 _ **Mana: C**_

 _ **Luck: E**_

 _ **Noble Phantasm: Unable to Be Categorized**_

 _ **Class Skills:**_

 _ **Magic Resistance: A**_

 _ **Magic Resistance grants protection against magical effects. Differing from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan possesses a very high resistance against harmful mystical effects due to his cursed Soul and heritage as the Son of an immortal who has Domain over Magic. This Class skill will be boosted to EX-rank against certain categories of spells and Mystical effects.**_

 _ **Riding: A+**_

 _ **Riding is a Class Skill of Rider and Saber class Servants, denoting the ability to ride mounts and vehicles. Rider-class Servants will typically possess a high rank. It is said that dragon type mounts are an exception, requiring a different ability other than Riding. Possessing the knowledge and the necessary training needed to use even mystical beasts as mounts; Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan is able to use the riding instincts of this skill to Operate Modern vehicles and use even mystical creatures as mounts.**_

 _ **Personal Skills:**_

 _ **Divinity: B**_

 _ **A measure of whether one has Divine Spirit aptitude or not. At high levels, one is treated as a mixed race of a Divine Spirit, and the level declines when the one's own rank as a Monster or Demonic Beast rises. It can also decrease due to one's dislike for the gods. That which have A-Ranked Divinity or above has reached the Throne of Gods, It also has an effect which reduces special defensive values called 'purge defense' in proportion to the Divinity's Rank. It can break through Skills such as Protection of the Faith and Enlightenment of the Sacred Fig. as a Demigod who is the result of the union between an immortal and a mortal, Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan has high aptitude for divinity however his dislike for the immortals has caused this skill to decrease to B-rank.**_

 _ **Charisma: B**_

 _ **Charisma is a composite Skill consisting of a person's charm as well as the natural talent to command or unify an army or country; increasing the ability of allies during group battles, a rare talent and ability inherent to Servants of the Saver class. Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan's Possesses honed leadership skills Due to the loyalty and admiration that he has managed to inspire within the homunculus army which he has personally Lead, trained and created.**_

 _ **Battle Continuation: A**_

 _ **Battle Continuation is a Skill that allows for the continuation of combat after sustaining mortal wounds. It will also reduce mortality rate from injury. This Skill represents the ability to survive and/or the mentality of one who doesn't know when to give up, consisting of one's strength of vitality in predicaments. It is also one of the powers of a vampire. The best result is achieved when a resilient body is combined with this Skill. Known for his survivability and unyielding nature of continuing to Live, Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan's will to survival and tenacity to live despite the wounds and injuries received has become personified into this skill.**_

 _ **Double Class: B**_

 _ **A Personal Skill given to Servants that are the result of being fused from two different classed Servants. Because of his separate Legend and hosting a different Servant-class of his own, Edward Dastan/Shirou Fraga's Class has been fused with that of the one within him. As a result, the change of Class-skills and Personal skills between both the Saber-Class and the Archer-class are possible by allowing the possession of his physical body to the one within.**_

 _ **Noble Phantasms:**_

 _ **[Infinite Blade Works: Inner World of infinite Blades]**_

 _ **Rank: Unable to be Categorized**_

 _ **Type: Unable to Be Categorized**_

 _ **Range: Unable to Be Categorized**_

 _ **Maximum amount of targets: Unable to Be Categorized**_

 _ **Description: The Noble Phantasm which embodies and symbolizes Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan's Prowess and skill as the Steel Wrought Magus, Where others had legendary weapons and possessed Demigod-Powers, Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan possessed neither of those advantages and so had to seek other means of survival and gaining advantage against his opponents and enemies. Achieving what is believed to be impossible victory through his mastery, effective and efficient use of his Own Created Reality Marble. The Noble phantasm is infinite Arsenal of Created Rune-enhanced magical weaponry that has been created by their creator through many ordeals, Whims or opportunities.**_

 _ **As a master of Runes, Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan's Noble Phantasm embodies the concept of 'Word-turned into conceptual reality' which allows the contents of his noble phantasm to gain conceptual prowess through their way of creation and intended use. The reality marble embodies the natural phenomenon of one's true inner world and so it will not suffer any penalties of utilization or use.**_

 _ **Shirou Fraga/Edward Dastan's Full mastery of his own reality marble and his status as the true owner of all its continents allows him the ability to fully utilize his reality marble through will and intent and being able to manipulate it's continents through the same conditions**_ _._

"This…." Archer seemed to be at loss of words and frankly I would have been seriously surprised if he wasn't, "I don't even know what to think anymore."

Truthfully, I didn't know what to think either.

Was it madness that I have found out that the heroic spirit within the archer class-card was no one but my-self? It was.

The chances of someone being implemented with their own future/alternative-self turned into a heroic spirit are impossible but when you're a son of Hecate who had found himself in the body of a supposed fictional character? The line between possibility and impossibility tended to be blur when you have experienced something like that.

"My real name is Edward Dastan, I'm a son of Hecate who has come from a world where some world-version of yours had been nothing more than fictional entertainment," I said, sarcasm was dripping from my tone like water falling down from a waterfall. "You have seen some of my memories and I have seen some of yours, both of us have learned that things considered to be impossible tend to be dangerously possible around us. Is it too much for you to understand that Zelretch had planned this all along from the bottom of his twisted-pranking mind and made sure that the future is now truly and utterly screwed?"

If I had a class-card with my own heroic spirit in it then who said that Rin and Luvia didn't also have one like mine along with other masters within the holy-grail war? This chaos and inane unpredictability was all thanks to one self-proclaimed king of pranksters called Zelretch.

He was back in my life for a single day and already he had managed to throw any semblance of order out of the window and then pulverized it for good measure. Small wonders that the Koronus Soldiers were sent to kill me; I was now a direct threat to the existence of everything within their future.

"….so you're now some kind of a Demi-servant?" Emiya still didn't seem to be able to wrap his head around the particular mess which was now my supposed physiology. Nevertheless, I decided to just wordlessly nod for the sake of what's left of my own sanity and his.

"I don't know and I can't find it in myself to care about that right about now," I admitted, using my free hand to rub my forehead which was experiencing a new wave of headaches. "What I do care about, is that Lorelei is going to come to Fuykui city within a week and she will skin us all alive if we don't have a way to explain to her that it's not our fault that something that should have been dead a long-time ago is now back and has been used. Not to mention that she'll roast me like a Chicken once she finds out that that I have used a mass-destruction noble phantasm right next to the Fuykui city."

Mentioning the name of the city that I currently lived in, was enough to remind me of the news which had seen from the Television and the mass panic that it had caused amongst the residence of the city. The city didn't exactly have a good past-record and seeing a large patch of the mountain near the church suddenly go 'poof' hadn't done any assurances about its safety.

In fact, the hospitals along with the Fuykui police department and even emergency response were now ready for any kind of sudden unwanted 'incidents'. Not to mention the amount of times the city representatives were put to the live television where they assured the residents of the city that everything was firmly under control and there was no sudden disaster or terrorist attack.

I didn't have the heart to think (without getting a heart attack) about the other hidden eyes that were now directed towards the city because I had enough experience with the governments and the militaries of mankind to know that I couldn't risk any other possible supernatural incidents.

The aftermath of Yesterday's incident at the Fuykui Church would have been a death-sentence for me if Caren hadn't contacted her superiors to clean-up the mess left behind by Koronus's forces; if any other incidents happen with me at the middle of them then It would naturally fall on me to contain and manage the damage-control of keeping the existence of the moonlight-world secret because Koronus certainly wouldn't stay long-enough in this time-line to clean-up their own mess.

They would definitely operate on the logic that I would be the one to grab the broom and sweep the mess away before anyone unknown of the existence of the moonlit world becomes aware of it, otherwise every Magi and their respective organization would paint me as the culprit that has risked the absolute rule of secrecy.

Within the moonlit world, there were few absolute Rules that everyone had to follow not just for the sake of self-preservation but also undeniable necessity. And one of those Rules was called the absolute Rule of secrecy.

Their mandate was simple to know and understand: the existence of the moonlit world must be kept secret at all _costs_.

It didn't matter if you were the cause of a supernatural related incident or not, being guilty or innocent has no meaning at the bigger scheme of things. What that truly mattered was that if you were related to the incident that threatened the secrecy of the existence of the supernatural world.

If you were related then you had to do you're absolute best to clean-up the breach through whatever means you deemed this goal to be achievable, the only thing that mattered was the result, the used means and methods will be considered to be acceptable compared to that.

Failure to do so would see to it that you will have a whole supernatural world to answer to, and these answers were not the kind that could be paid for by Jail-time or some money given. The only answer that you could give and the only price which you will have to pay in full was none other than your life; hence why it would always be in your best interests to keep your nose clean when it came to matters involving the world of Magi.

Damage control and secrecy were a must for a Magi; there were powerful ancient Magus Families within the world that had built powerful economic empires and gathered influence that could affect governments and Nations, and they would do anything for the sake of their Magecraft even if means at the expense of others. The average Magus had the same zeal when it came to their Magecraft and its protection even though their methods and ways were vastly different thanks to various circumstances.

At the end of the day, I would be forced to deal with the aftermath of any trouble that Koronus _will_ make for me in the future. I had to act the role of the cleaner that will have to clench his teeth without a word coming out of his mouth else he'll be digging himself into a deeper hole with no way of coming out of it.

I was bound to keep the existence of the Magecraft secret just like any magi even if it came to a point that I had to spend resources like money or use governmental influence to do so.

And there in lay the problem.

I wasn't in any position to do any kind of damage-control because that kind of thing costs resources and needs deep connections, I didn't have any of those things anymore and so the only thing that I could do was to get myself out of landmine before one of the mines exploded under my foot.

I needed to move from this city, there was no place for me here anymore unless I wanted to risk my life and limb.

It was a priority that I will have to look at very soon and I already had thought about the place that could serve as my new place of residence. If I could get out of this whole clusterfuck that Zelretch had thrown at the top of me with my head still on my shoulders, that is.

"I need your help, archer." I spoke, already admitting that I was at my own wits end.

"Unless you need me to trace you a few noble phantasms, then I don't really know how I can help you." Emiya's response caused my eye to reflectively twitch in a very unhealthy manner and in no small amount of irritation.

The spirit-clone of the counter-guardian was stalling for time in an attempt to analyze the situation and find a way for us out of this mess, he knew it and I knew it too but neither of us was willing to verbally admit it because that would mean that the situation was so chaotic that not even archer's _eye of mind_ skill could hope to fully analyze the details, Once again it was all thanks to Zelretch for Chaos begat opportunity but also brought forth an infinite amount of possibilities both nightmarish and frightening.

throwing Windbrynger into the air, the blade floated towards the floating words that I had written before it stopped moving Once it's pointed Wind sharpened-tip was pointing towards the specific part that is one of the most dangerous that can get me into a sea of trouble and suspicion, Particularly my name.

"There are six other masters within the grail war and each one of them and their grandmother can use their master-sight to view my status once the true-identity condition is fulfilled, I don't think I will need to tell you how _dangerous_ it will be once they learn that my real name is not just Shirou Fraga but also Edward Dastan, do I?" I stared at the white-haired servant and wordlessly dared him to say something cynical, Zelretch may have been the king of pranks but I knew a few tricks of my own that could convoy my displeasure.

Archer knew this fact by experiencing it first hand; it was the reason why he swallowed his own words before they came out of his mouth.

"While my reality marble is full of noble phantasms, I'd have to possess you if I am to trace any of it. Not to forget that any noble phantasm that I trace will need continuous Parana for it to be maintained and that is before activating it." The servant shook his head in a way that said it was not an idea that any of us will be entertaining for but a few fleeting moments, "I'd have to be in control all the time, I Don't thinks that's going to be a solution for any of us."

"It isn't," I agreed, my eyes landing upon the Red shrouds which covered the servant of the bow's arms.

Said servant of the bow followed my gaze before a sudden glint appeared in his eyes, "I Think I have a more permanent solution in mind."

"It won't work," I quickly discarded the idea which I had anticipated, "The Shroud of Martin is considered to be an important artifact of the church, and they won't allow me to permanently have possession of it…" I stopped as a sudden idea formed into my mind.

"You wouldn't happen to have had used you're 'tracing' on the shroud in the past life, did you?" Emiya's eyes narrowed at me in thought before warily and hesitantly nodding, I had seen him do so before whenever it had come to any kind of idea that I could claim ownership of. "Then can you please give me a few pieces of the information regarding its creation? Just a teeny-tiny part," I rubbed my thumb and index finger upon each other as if to emphasize the point and make it seem more convenient.

All it took was for EMIYA to frown before instantly the knowledge about the red shroud of Martin started to slowly come towards mind, I was going to have a very irradiating headache when I opened my eyes to the physical world due to the sudden influx of information being processed by my mind but that was nothing compared to avoiding a very unpleasant voyage to the grave.

Once the information had stopped coming and my mind had recovered enough for me to concentrate, I focused on my will fortified by clear intent of what I wanted before suddenly two identical copies of myself come shimmering into existence a few steps behind me. The two clones immediately turned to the opposite of each other before starting to walk away from us.

"….okay, I have to ask." Archer's voice was now filled with irritation and annoyance, "how did you do that? Is it one of the functions of the infinite blade works?"

"It's one of the many advantages that comes to those who master that which is within them," I answered before indicating towards my reality marble with a waving-gesture of my right hand, "I'm the true owner of every weapon that you see here. I have mastered each one of them and their abilities-perfected them to the heights which they could be perfected to, just as you had done the same with your own abilities."

"I'm not omnipotent when I am within my own reality marble, Edward." Emiya stated, "Yet you are, powerful enough that you managed to obliterate not one but _three_ dead apostle Ancestors within it during the apostle war."

Once again, I decided that actions were louder than words. Grabbing Windbrynger and stabbing it on the ground, I leaned against the sword in imitation of a man who was leaning against his own cane with a thoughtful expression on the face.

A blink later and archer was suddenly sitting on a wooden chair with a large-black board located behind me, hovering in the air with no regards of gravity. I brought my previously empty hand up which now had a white-chalk within it before I quickly started to write on the board with the precision that came from being a former teacher within clock-tower.

"What is a realty marble, Emiya?" I asked without turning back towards the bow-servant, the chalk making click-click-click sounds whenever its tip met the board while.

"It's a manifestation of one's inner world," The Servant explained in an interested tone, wondering where I was going with the sudden lecturing appearance and tone.

"Now that's the short answer, it's Rin-Made alright but unfortunately it's wrong." I answered before pausing during my writing, "and this comes from a man who himself has a reality marble, Rin Tohsaka Can come-up with all theoretical explanations within the world but at the end I'm the one who has a reality marble and has researched it's capabilities and limits to the full."

Once finished with my writing, I looked towards the sitting servant.

"First of all, you need to understand human nature if you wish to even begin the process of understanding the thing we call 'Reality Marble'." I started with what many some might claim to be the most basic and simplest of thing, but human nature was anything but simple. "It can be summarized in one word: Fickleness, it starts from the moment that we are born and from the moment that we all die. To call the reality marbles manifestations of inner world; is to imply that it can be changed just as we all do as we experience life and Age, that's first-rate Nonsense right there." I used the white chalk to put a good white-line over the first topic before getting to the next.

 _ **Human nature and reality Marble**_

"All men are different, our personality and our ways of thinking are prime example of that. We kill, we cheat, we steal, we help, we create and we build. Our actions might look to be the same and our goals might temporary even be the _same_ but in the end, our intent and reactions towards things are _different_ ," I explained with a cynical tone, "it's impossible for men to think _one-hundred_ percent the same way. It's completely _impossible_. That's why our society will always be plagued by conflicts of interests and can never truly know the meaning of unity and peace, not as long as something called free-will exists. That's why all reality marbles are different from one another, because every man is fundamentally different both in nature and existence. We all have our own talents and we all have our own shortcomings."

I pointed at myself as a prime example of those words, acknowledging that there were things that I wasn't good at and there were other things which I excelled at, just like billions of others that called Planet earth Home.

I draw another white line before continuing.

 _ **The Difference between Reality Marbles and the effects of human nature**_

"A Reality Marble is not the manifestation of one's inner world, but a manifestation of _soul_." I said the word 'soul' with a great emphases that showed it had deeper meanings then just a single word, "an artificial manifestation which is composed of two layers: the inner layer which is the inner world of self and the outer layer which is created through the projection of one's reality marble onto the physical world. In the Former, I am omnipotent but I can't bring anyone from the real-world into it-that would mean that I can create a bounded field within myself which can house real physical objects or living beings… an impossible feat in the use of Magecraft, the art which specifically focuses upon replication of scientific feats through the use of supernatural means." I took a deep breath before tiredly letting the air go out of my lungs. (Whoever said giving lectures is easy, definitely didn't know about what it means to have a perched and sour throat.)

The blackboard and chair vanishing with just a clap of my hands and one surprised archer falling down on his back in an undignified manner, Nevertheless, I continued my lesson and finished it with a resolute tone.

"So Yes and No, Shirou Emiya, I am omnipotent within my inner world but mortal like anyone within the outer one." I opened my arms and gestured towards out surroundings, "The projection of a reality marble is like that of a bounded field -Temporary artificial field created through Magecraft which will have to follow the laws of limitation. And as for the reason on how I managed to defeat those three dead-apostle ancestors….Look around you, there are plenty of weapons here."

The fact that those said weapons were now possibly changed and different from what I knew in terms of power and use, was another problem added to my plate. The nervousness and fears that I felt for the fact that I will be seeing memories of my possible future self and learning about the events that I shouldn't even know in the first-place, was just another new entry to my list of worries.

With this kind of pressure on my shoulders, I knew that something would have to give sooner or later because my patience was not infinite and neither did I have much to spare these days. Somehow, I just knew that the coming days will not be giving me any restocks for that particular commodity.

"Right," Archer's word was enough to signal the end of that part of our discussion, both of us silently acknowledging the line of privacy that was between us. We may have agreed to let the other see pieces of our own memories but there were still secrets that we would rather keep close to the chest, there were just some secrets that would be best left secret. "Does the current predicament mean that you're extra command seals are going to become worthless?"

"No, they still have their uses." I answered, explaining about the hastily made ritual which Caren had to use in order to install the class-card. She didn't have any previous preparations and the risk of the ritual had failing had been high so she had to use an amplifier and equalizer to stabilize the process. Those said equalizers happen to have been three command seals which she had used to transfer into me before instilling the class-card, she had used three command seals to make sure that I would not possibly die and that alone was the reason why I had forgiven the women before telling her to give me space so that things could cool down a bit.

Command seals were things that Magi would sell the life of several of their relatives and children to obtain, and Caren had used three just as insurance that I would live through. The irony was not lost to me as I had thought about the fact that it could be excused that Caren had done so not just for my sake but also for hers but she could have only used one command seals, why did she to use not one or two but three?

A whole set that a Holy Grail master would obtain upon summoning their servants; Caren Hortensia had used them to keep the ritual stable and guarantee my survival to the extent that she could. And let's not forget that by joining the holy-grail war, I would have to inevitably settle with the hard truth that I will be implemented with a class-card just as any other master within the holy-grail war would be.

Even so, I still would have liked it a lot better if I had chosen to jump-over that particular obstacle rather than being thrown over it. But as they say, the past was the past. You can't live in the past just as you can't live in the future; all you could do was to learn from the past, be vigilant of the present and look-up to the future.

Anything else would be delusion and idiotic optimism, none of which I had space to give within my life.

"While they might not be absolute anymore, they are still powerful in their own right." I summarized, "while it's not potent as they once were, I'd rather have them than have nothing."

Before archer and I could say anything else, both of our attentions were drawn towards the two clones that approached us from the opposite sides which they had left. The left one was holding a greatsword, exquisite in craftsmanship and tall enough as an adolescent man and thick as my arm, its handle was golden and at the end of its equally golden pommel was the head of a roaring Lion with two fangs hanging from its mouth. Its blade was faintly shining in light, adorned with very small golden runes that faintly glowed at the edges of it.

Just the mere act of looking at the sword was enough for me to recognize and remember that it was _Sunlight_ , the greatsword which had slayed the three apostle ancestors where all of my other weapons had failed. One of the most dangerous weapons within my Reality Marble, something so powerful and dangerous that even I had my reservations for using it.

This weapon was the reason why my presence alone can cause dead apostle ancestors themselves sound the retreat and make a run for the hills. That was the kind of power that _sunlight_ had before, but now I knew that its power had risen to conceptual levels along with its brother _Moonlight_ that was being carried by my right Clone. Where Sunlight was golden in handle and a roaring lion at the end of the pommel, Moonlight was Silver and a snarling wolf instead of lion, light-blue runes shimmering across its blade's edges.

The difference between the lion and the wolf was like the difference between Fire and Ice but at the end both burned just as fiercely as the other.

"Well, it seems our time is up." I said, grabbing Sunlight with my right hand and Moonlight with the other, watching as my clones shimmered out of existence just as they had come to be. Plunging their tips into the ground, taking the first step to forever unsealing the two swords which I had kept in stasis and sealed away deep within my reality Marble.

"Those swords…." I didn't need years of experience in deception to recognize the steel and iron within Archer's voice. "You do know what will happen if you use those swords, don't you? You'll be labeled as a cataclysmic existence, Edward. Any chance of peace that you might have in the future will be gone if someone learns about the existence of those swords and their sheer conceptual power."

"I know," I replied tiredly, looking to the two swords which I was still holding by the handles before slowly starting to let go. "Trust me, I know."

Gilgamesh, the king of heroes had EA, had the sword of rapture that could destroy any existence and even the planet itself. Shirou Emiya had Excalibur, the sword of promised victory and the most holy of holy swords; it was a very powerful sword no matter its status as a Fake that brought it one-Rank Down.

But Me, Shirou Fraga, I didn't have any of those two.

I didn't have a sword that could destroy everything in its wake like the king of Heroes; I Couldn't produce an awe-inspiring replica of Excalibur, the sword which was said to have been un-paralleled even amongst noble phantasms.

But what I could bring to the table was Sunlight and Moonlight, Through Sunlight I had Destroyed three apostle ancestors so thoroughly that not even the supernatural healing factor of the Alien-vampire species had been able to heal them. Not even their consciousness and existence had survived the wounds that the sword of Lion's Pride had inflicted upon them.

That was the kind of sword that sunlight was, the essence of fire made steel and turned into a weapon just as Moonlight was the essence of Ice.

"That's unwise, you know." Archer argued more, I kept my ear open to him and listened to his words with the patience of a man who had learned to exercise it and pay attention to even the tiniest of details, having learned that which I don't know about can still become the cause of my death. "There are literally five-thousand names within the black designation list and you're name, our Name, is at the first three-hundred. If you use and reveal the existence of those swords then you're name will definitely be pushed to the top-hundred."

"Once again, I tell you that I know. So tell me something that I don't know." I rebuked Archer's words before the servant decided that it was time to be blunt and speak directly.

"You're future; those swords are not worth it. Let me seal them just I did before, Edward." Archer's hands quickly landed upon my own and prevented me from letting go of the two swords. Knowing that if I fully let go, then the two swords would firmly be planted upon my reality marble and naturally the infinite blade works would create an infinite amount of them. I can un-plant them right now and re-seal them as long as my hands are on the swords, I will only need to let go and the reality marble will do the rest. "There are infinite amount of weapons within the infinite blade works, use them. But leave these two be."

"Tell me then; How Can I 'leave these two be' when they are the only chance that I have got Left?" I presented the question that had haunted me after the whole debacle with the Koronus soldiers and the Fuykui Church incident, not making a single move as the counter-guardian stood in front of him. His eyes looking into mine and mine into his. "You saw it yourself what kind of armaments Koronus was willing to bring into this timeline to kill me despite the many risks Involved; my own creations and inventions turned against me, Soldiers armed with weapons of my own design trying to kill me. That's what I get when I agreed to _share_ only a small part of my research notes with Barthlemeloi Lorelei."

And that small part was not shared, not really. It was taken from me by force as part of the agreement between me and the vice-director of the clock-tower the day that she had given me the conditions for the end of my apprenticeship to her. The whole Yggdmillennia affair had been just another condition.

"She couldn't have given them to Koronus," Archer reasoned, his words uncompromising and true but I had the perfect answer for his Logical explanation.

"No, She Couldn't. But that doesn't change the fact those notes had landed in Koronus's hands in the future and using it they had reproduced many of my projects that are now no doubt hanging over my neck like a headsman's Axe." I tried to pull away my hands only for the Counter-guardian to stop me using his own strength, I knew I could will it and easily overpower him within the inner layer of the reality marble but something was just nagging at the back of my mind that I should hear Emiya's words.

"I'm arming myself for war and I'm moving forward with the knowledge that I will be leaving more than one body in my wake," I Explained, "that means that I won't be holding back, I can't afford to set back and let everyone walk-over me anymore. I'm done playing games. Is that too hard for you to understand?"

"Oh, I understand it perfectly." Archer answered instantly, his eyes looking to me with no small amount intensity. "In fact, I can see it so well that I can tell you right now what lies at the end of that Road. You can do it too, just look in front of you and see what my determination to see my ideals fulfilled has done to me. No, you damn well will hear me to the last word before you make a decision!" Emiya suddenly shouted; his voice cutting into my thoughts and slashing them into pieces like how I had practiced with Windbrynger to cut Slabs of steel.

"The First greatest mistake that I had ever done in my life was to pick-up the dreams of someone else as my own; I tried to mold myself after _Kiritsugu Fucking Emiya_ ," Emiya's voice was conflicted with vast amounts of emotions. Pain and grief, Lunging and want, "Day after Day and night after night that I spend with that broken husk of a man, I learned more and more about him. His manners and the way he ate his food, his look and the way he thought about things; His reactions and actions towards certain events, I was the perfect small copy of the man himself. At that time, Kiritsugu had seen it to and had thought it to be some kind of a childhood phase that will pass in time until the day came that he heard me telling him that I wanted to be a hero of justice."

And then archer's voice was cut short as another wave of emotions seem to appear in his eyes before it was quickly suppressed under the words that weighted at least a mountain on him both emotionally and mentally.

"Kiritsugu cried the moment that he had heard that, Edward. The man that was said to have been a ruthless killer so feared and titled the Magus Killer by the mage association; _Cried_ like a man who had just found-out that he has lost everything and every reason to live. The next day…" Archer's voice was suddenly hitched, and then I saw a single tear come out of his eyes and trail down from his check until it fell on the ground. "The next day….i saw Kiritsugu furious, I had seen him plenty of times angry and annoyed before but never had I seen that much of him at the breaking-point. We had this fight for a whole-month where he tried his best to convince me to forget his dream and never even look at it, I Couldn't. I couldn't really let go of Kiritsugu's ideals because those were the only things that I have had left, the first things that I gained after the Fuykui fire. They were the only colors that painted my world, Edward. I refused to let go because then I wouldn't have been the Shirou Emiya that I had become, and that became the first step towards my damnation."

Archer let out a tired breath, the expression on his face and the gaze in his eyes belonging to someone who was disturbingly empty.

"My second greatest mistake in my life was my own determination and will to follow through my ideals, my mind utterly refusing to change and learning the lesson that sometimes paying too much attention to our ideals and dreams can cause us to lose sight of equally or even perhaps more important things than them." the servant of the bow continued, closing his eyes and letting the rest of the tears trail down from his eyes and down to his checks. Some might have considered it humiliating to cry in front of someone-else that was not you're family but I like to at least think that archer and I shared enough common-grounds for that. "I didn't appreciate the things that I had in life and so I felt their loss when I lost them by becoming a Counter guardian. Losing everything in my attempts of preserving and following through ideals and a dream that I had taken from someone else, _stolen_ from someone else, How much more pathetic of an ending do you think that is?"

"You think that is pathetic?" I suddenly lost my temper and decided that if I had to hear Archer's words then he can offer me the same courtesy. "Then you know Nothing, _Shirou Emiya_. You lost your whole biological family to a fire and then watched as your own adopted father died slowly like a flower that was being wilted by the passage of time. Do you know how my father died? Reza Dastan was a Middle-Eastern magician who had come to the ancient Magician's house of life for education and training before he managed to gain a Permanent citizenship in the states, he was a man who loved reading books and study the Arcane Lore and that was the hobby that lead to him someday meeting my Immortal mother in guise of a fellow-researcher of the arcane theory. One thing led to another and soon enough my father and my immortal mother had me, a Demigod of Hecate. And it was only then that my father learned about my mother's true identity and that was enough to Ruin every god-damned plans that he had in the future about having a good family to call his own; He had been raised an orphan who had been bounced around from one house to another, the notion that his own child would feel the same pain of not having a mother just because of some ancient law was enough for him to hate everything that started with a 'H' and then ended with a 'E'."

It was suddenly my own turn to shed tears and feel the wetly things coming down from my eyes towards my checks. "At the end he died by throwing himself into the Jaws of a hellhound so that I could live, do you know how many _fucking_ nightmares I had about that? How many times I had flinched when I had seen some tomato being crushed by a mallet just like how my father had died through the crushing force of a supernatural monster's jaw? _Too many_ , that's what." I continued even though the tears started to fall more heaver, ignoring the fact that I was a demigod who had been put through so much hardship and had to learn how to make his way in a world full of those with no shortage of desire to kill him or use him if given the opportunity.

Sometimes the weight was just too much; even the shoulders of a man hardened through hardship had a limit on the amount of weight it could carry.

"Don't make the mistake of comparing yourself with me, I didn't spend my childhood going to school and interacting with normal people. The time that you had spent in the school playing with others was the time that I had used to learn how to live with the fact that I'm part of a world where every _thrice-damned_ mythology monster is real." I reminded the counter-guardian before taking a deep calming breath, counting from one to ten and then from ten to one before I trusted myself to continue without letting my emotions get the better of me. "Both of us have tasted the very bitter end, Archer. by god-you Died clinging to ideals and a dream not even your own while I…" my throat suddenly felt heavy and clenched as if it wanted every word coming out of it to cost me a very Considerable effort, "I Died by having a spear shoved into my heart through the hands of the women that I knew, had loved and fought beside with for _years_. On the very day that I had finely had the courage to propose to her, the ring-box had been in my right hand just before I Got a celestial bronze spear shoved into me. The blow was so sudden that I hadn't even had a chance to look properly. Didn't even felt the sting until I had fallen on the cold asphalt…." I trailed off before growing silent, gritting my teeth to keep myself from sobbing and instead allowed the tears to continue coming out.

' _It's not fair,'_ a faraway voice within my head said to me, the voice that once-upon a time belonged to a innocent boy who loved to read books about myths and legends until they had become real and been turned into his worst nightmares. _'I'm not a prophesized demigod like Percy Jackson, Neither am I a son of Jupiter expected to lead because of his heritage or a Demigoddess that has been turned into a tree and later become alive due to a golden fleece, joining the Artemis's hunt at the end and dodging the clutches of a great prophecy. I'm Edward Dastan, son of a Minor immortal. Why should I be the one that suffers like this?'_

And then my bitter-experience makes me remember that the world was not fair, it didn't owe me anything. No one had ever done anything for me without asking for something in-return and those that did were far and few in between.

Even my own immortal mother hadn't claimed me until after the second titan war; personally visiting me one night to Claim me as one of her children in front of the Campers of camp half-blood, barely had she finished saying the words that I had simply disowned her as my mother through nothing then the few Calm words of 'I refuse to be a son of Hecate' and then left to make my way towards the place which I knew would become my new home in form of the big-house that Chiron and a certain immortal Lived in, never once had I looked back and never did I set-foot into the Hecate Cabin unless absolutely necessary.

That had been the extant of my unspoken fury towards the immortal that I hadn't even seen with my own eyes before, the tears that I would have shed when I would have found-out about the identity of my immortal mother were lost along the way when I was fighting within the second titan war and the anger coated by hatred was turned into something cold that I had carried within me even after my time within the titan-lord of time's army.

life had simply continued for those within camp half-blood in the next day; the previous night's events and happenings remaining where they had happened, later I would learn to my appreciation that my half-siblings had warned everyone that it won't end-well if they find out someone had decided to gossip about matters that aren't their business in the first place.

Coincidently, I would meet others who also lived within the big-house, refusing to be the sons and daughters of their immortals parents through the reasons different but still similar in a way like my own.

Among those that I would meet, there had been a son of Ares who would later be amongst the ones that would descend into the hellish realm called Tartarus. I would learn many things from that son of Ares just as he had learned from me, his soul would be forever marked just as mine, and he would become the man that I will always remember amongst the strongest, doing what others couldn't do or weren't willing to do, slaying Legions of Monsters. Standing with his head held high and his shoulders unbowed even though they were weighted down by the many unthinkable actions that he had done when no one else was willing to do.

He was among the very few I had ever acknowledged as equal where a full world of legends and myth had learned to be wary of my name, the man that had fought me to a standstill before bringing me to my knees and making me taste the bitter taste of defeat just as I had later returned the favor, he had been one of the many that had made me learn that there was always those who were far more better and powerful then you.

It had been his convictions and will that had taught me that though all men will have regrets within their life-times, those who couldn't accept their regrets and get pass them would never know any Peace. And since finding myself in this world, I had come to harbor many regrets both from past-life and this one, with my biggest regret being how my life had ended before it could really have started.

"I want to live, Archer." I finely revealed one of my true desires, something that the servant of the bow knew just as I knew his desire of wanting to avoid ending-up joining his true self. "I want to live the rest of my life in Peace, Perhaps someday meeting the right woman and start a family for myself. I want to look into the mirror and see someone that I Could be more proud of being; I want a better ending for my life then the last one. How can I have those and how can I gain them when everything that I always try to build for myself is destroyed because of those that want to kill me?"

The silence that greeted my words was enough for the counter-guardian to let out a tired breath; I had been ready to argue my case more before the servant of the bow started to remove his hands from mine; his eyes and voice were solemn in such intensity that convoyed how serious his words were, "if you unseal those swords and use them within the real world, then you're name will be entering the first one-hundred within the black designation list. The grail war that you are going to fight in and the victory that you might have after that… it won't mean a thing if there is nothing left for you afterwards when the whole moonlit world will take up arms against you; if you Really want a better ending and a better life for yourself then the previous one, then this is not the way that you will have it." And then the archer closed his mouth and looked to me, arms folded on his chest without any emotion on his face. Waiting for my choice, a choice that I didn't hesitate to make….

…by unplugging the two blades from the ground of my reality marble and putting them on my shoulders with sunlight on the right and moonlight on the left, my eyes were closed for a moment in deep thinking before they were opened.

"I have been taught a long time ago that if you want to have a better life and future, then you will need to make it through the use of your own two hands and Power, Will and determination are only the first of the steps." I mused towards the only person who was listening to my words, here and now. "If you want to be strong then you need to learn how to fight alone; your life is your own, you can't rely on others to live it for you and be there with you all the way." I spared a glance at the two swords that I was holding, well balanced and reliable and practical just as I liked my weapons to be. "The world that I had lived in, Archer, is a world of legends and myths where the age of gods had not ended at all but had also influenced the modern world in some form of capacity, a World where there is an endless cycle of Demigods against Monsters with the occasional supernatural related disaster that they at the end would be forced resolve or do something about. Words and diplomacy are non-existent in this world because you can't negotiate with those that aren't willing to even listen to your words and neither are you able to say no to an immortal unless you want to experience how hazardous it is for you're health to have one holding grudges against you."

The servant of the bow kept his silence as I continued to speak when I had gathered the words that had the capability to convoy my current issue, the reason why the Moonlit world feared me and the important part where I had no more room to give towards those that didn't understand the message of what will happen if they attempt to kill me. "Since coming here into this world, finding myself in the body of your counterpart, I have done nothing but living my second life to the best of what I Can, a life that I built with sweat and hardships filled with tears. Graduating college and finding a respectable job, doing my best to stay away from the blood that had stained my hands as a demigod. However, you can only run so far against you're nature and past before it catches up with you as the old saying goes." The bitterness and loathing that I had within myself towards those words seeped into them like water flowing into the river. "I Joined the Mage association as a freelance enforcer under a temporary contract, my sole reason and aim had been to prepare for the fifth Holy Grail war and acquire a few resources and favors to call my own. Imagine my surprise when I learned that my most feared suspicions are true, that everything that I think I know doesn't even scratch the surface about this fucked-up world."

Without warning of any sudden manner, I threw moonlight and sunlight towards the Counter-guardian, the swords sailed into the air before their hilt was grasped by him. "It had gone downhill from there, Emiya. Look at the monster in front of you and tell me what do you see on my hands if not blood."

"I see many things, blood not being the only thing."

"Then you're not looking deep enough," I Replied, not bothering to hide the scoff that appeared on my expression. Rubbing my face with my hands, I turned my back towards the resident servant of the bow within me. "Thanks for listening to the words of this jaded fool, Emiya. Goodness knows that I needed a pair of ears to listen to my rambling for some time." I started to walk, choosing to take a leisurely walk within my reality-marble; it had been quite a time since I had done that. "It's good to have you back."

"Wait," the counter-guardian's voice made me stop, waiting without turning back. "I still have questions that I need answers for."

"Don't we all," I mused, "but sure. Ask and I'll answer but I'll have you know that I reserve the privilege of not answering if I don't want to."

Barely had I finished delivering my words that the counter-guardian presented his question.

"You could have killed Rider through the opportunity given by surprise," the bowman's voice was laced with curiosity and accusation based on analyzed truth. "You could have stopped Sakura's participation in the grail war by eliminating her servant, why didn't you?"

"Killing rider would have robbed sakura of her servant," I agreed with a nod, "but none of us can deny that the odds of her backing down from the grail war are as low as Rin Tohsaka's doing the same, which is nonexistent by the way." I looked towards the cloudy sky, wondering about the woman who was now the subject of our conversation; Caren must have finished implanting a class-card into her by now, I wondered for a moment that if she really knows what she has sign-up for, If her situation is the same as mine then the nightmares of the possible future will be hunting her just as it will be hunting me.

The possibility of sakura Matou dying due to the ritual was entertained before I quickly dismissed it; what sakura did with her life and what she chose for herself was none of my business, she was an adult and all adults were responsible for their actions and the consequences that followed. That was what being an adult meant. To know that you're choices affected you're life and the mistakes that you made were placed solely at your own feet.

"The fourth grail war took so many things from her just as it did too many others, Archer. She can't rest and move on with her life until she has seen it Finished for good." I informed the counter-guardian, telling him the facts about this world's sakura Matou and why was she so different than the one that he knew of. "And to be honest, she's not the only one."

Not for the first time in this life did I wordlessly curse the three founding Magi Families that had created the ritual of the heaven's Fel or now more commonly called the Holy Grail war. So many lives were ruined and so much more were lost due to a decision that had been made generations ago. And all of it for what exactly, the use and ownership of some 'omnipotent' wish-granting machine that was going to grant wishes or some other imaginary reward that had compelled fools to rush towards what they thought to be gold only to find out that it was their death all along.

' _the bloodshed started from the first grail war and now it will resume by the beginning of the fifth,'_ my eyes briefly flicked towards the sky, yellow lightning flashing into the ground with a very faint sound of thunder-like 'boom'. _'How many more, you Daft morons, how many more will have to die until you misbegotten fools learn that it never ends well when man decides to tamper with powers that he does not even understand. How many more families have to be torn apart until you all accept that there is no such thing as an omnipotent wish-granting machine that can give wishes without taking a high price? How many more sons and fathers, Daughters and mothers will have to die just because of a decision that three idiots made so long ago?'_

"Sakura would be safer with a servant beside her," I forged on, suppressing my bitter thoughts at the past and the stupidity of some. "I had analyzed the odds of her safety, decided on a course of action with it in the highest priority and then simply went through with it."

I only had taken five-steps before I heard another pair of feet following after me, Archer still had questions for me.

"So you admit that you care about Sakura," Archer said, now walking beside me.

"You're not an idiot, Emiya. So stop acting like one," I berated the servant, wondering the purpose of the questions that he was throwing towards me. "I'm the man that visited her at the end of every week as she recovered from years of mental breakdown and conditioning thanks to a certain old-bag of worms that should have been six-feet under a long time ago. I'm the man that hugged her when she was at her lowest; holding her and keeping her from falling down and breaking into thousands of unrecoverable pieces, if that doesn't show you that I care about her then I don't think anything else ever will."

"…do you love her?"

"Do you love Kiritsugu Emiya for saving you from the fire and giving you a family or do you hate him for allowing you to inherit his dream of becoming a hero of justice that ultimately damned you to a never ending cycle of slaughter and death?" I returned the question with one of my own, looking towards the counter-guardian walking beside me. His silence was the answer. "It's complicated isn't it? Well, my relationship with Sakura is just like that. Complications and messes all rolled into one, I don't really know what to make of it anymore."

The tired breath that came out of the counter guardian's mouth was enough for me to know what exactly he felt about my words; it was a strange thing after all this time, to see him show emotions when he had been barefoot of many of it when I had summoned him during the apostle war.

This was a proof that spending so much time within me had affected the counter-guardian to degrees that I didn't knew about; he may have been outside the boundaries of time and the cycle of life but what he saw and experienced still affected him just as it did to anyone else, something that I believe only the Rin Tohsaka of some other realty had found out about that was why she had been willing to once again make a pact with him even after the future version of Emiya Shirou had tried to kill the Emiya Shirou of the Present, had kidnapped her in the aim of forcing the boy into a battle of dreams and ideals under the pretense of a duel to death.

In some other world, this would be the reason why Rin Tohsaka had wanted the Archer-class servant back as her servant; she saw the man within him the same way that I was seeing him right now, and she wanted to save him even if it came to be temporary at best.

But in the real world where realty can be crueler then any man….all that Archer had was me, a reincarnated demigod. One could even say that the bowman and I both were at the same boat but in different sides; Emiya's true self was trapped eternally within a cycle of death and destruction while I was a reincarnated demigod whose soul was eternally marked by the mark of Tartarus itself, his mentality and sanity dubiously questionable at best. What a jape that fate has played upon us both.

"…what is your plan, Edward," The one walking beside me suddenly stopped just as I did the same. "No, no more word games and no more mysterious vagueness. Just say what you're really planning because while stopping Koronus is a good excuse-it's not one that I'm going to ever buy." He hefted the two swords that he carried onto his shoulders, their tip pointing pass his back. "Even if you had unsealed these two swords, there is no way for you to have taken the fight towards Koronus. Like you said, you don't have the resources or the needed manpower. That and the fact that Koronus's technological prowess is at the level where they can deny you the use of your Magecraft." And then I saw a moment of epiphany appear in the servant's eyes. "If you're willing to bring these two swords out then that means that you're desperate, but why? The Edward Dastan that I knew wouldn't have taken things too far like this without very important reason, what changed? What made you bring out the two of your most destructive weapons? For what purpose were you going to use them?"

By the end of his words, both of us had fallen into a deep and heavy silence, I leveled such a piercing stare towards Archer that left no room for doubt that I was annoyed at his ability to pick my manipulations and words apart.

There were so many things that I could say and so many things that I could use to give an answer to a man that wanted the truth but then came the hard-part; if it was so easy to say the truth then there will no liars in the world, it was sad that how easy it was for many to preach the virtue of honesty through words yet found lacking when it came to action.

Truth was like an arrow, its tip unbelievably piercing and sharp. Once you let go then there would no way for you to take it back. And that was what made it so terrifying because things would never be the same again after releasing it.

"People claim that they want the truth but very few like the taste of it once it's served," I warned the counter-guardian, "do you want me to tell you the truth? I can do better. I'll show it to you. But Let me ask you this: do you really want to know? Because once you know, then you won't be escaping unscathed."

To his credit, the bowman hesitated; it was a sign that he knew the heavy weight of the decision he is going to make. He knew how deep the truth could scar one for life just like me. Hard not to know when you had experienced it slapping you in the face time and time again, after everything had passed and you had learned of the lost opportunities that you will never have back.

"Show me," he chooses and I naturally decided to do just that, through but a snap of my fingers our surroundings changed as we both were immersed into what I knew to but the first vision of the possible future that I had seen last night when I had closed my eyes and had allowed sleep to take me.

"Then look closely archer," I advised, wondering about the inevitable reaction that the white-haired guardian would have after witnessing the vision that I had seen. "Look and tell me what I should do when I see something like this as my possible future."

The next moment we weren't standing within the familiar grounds of my reality marble anymore. Instead, we were standing within a clearing that once upon a time might have been a ground covered by grass, supporting tall trees that must have been cared for by some time.

"…what is this?" Archer's question was tense and timed; his eyes were looking towards the scene in front of him. The uprooted trees that were either shattered into thousand splinters of various sizes, the burned patches of grass and the carters left on the ground, none of them drew the bowman's gaze of attention.

That honor belonged to something else; to the nightmare that any man be it young or old would dread by instinct to ever see and experience, something that even curled the blood of a hardened demigod who had experienced no small amount of horrors and hardships within the merciless world that he had lived in.

"This is the future, one of its many infinite possibilities." I explained, feeling drained and wary when it came to dealing with anything that fell-down under the category of a possible-prophecy or even remotely related to the word 'future'.

I didn't like prophecies; I hated them with a passion because they had been the source of no small amount of life-threatening troubles within my life, it had always been a tedious challenge for me to stand in front of the so called 'oracle' and force my ears to remain open as I heard the words-turned-into-verses that were the cause of no small amount of nightmares and future restlessness for me.

Watching those said verses come out of a mummified corpse that should have been dust and ashes a long time ago had only made me grind my teeth and fist my hands in an attempt to stop myself from possibly jumping onto the talking mummy and snap what remained of its boney neck like a twig.

At least the modern oracle was someone who had a good-head on her shoulders; knowing that looking into the future and having certain knowledge of it was not something that could be taken lightly. Rachel may have been a clear-sighted normal teenager with no drop of ichor in her veins, but at least she was more intelligent than the previous oracle.

Because if there had ever been something between that ancient oracle's ears when she was alive, then she would have realized that the prophecies coming out of her lips would sooner or later bring trouble to her doorstep, that's the price that the world will make you pay if you can't control your mouth and the words coming out of it.

If not hades then someone else would have paid the ancient oracle her Dues; a demigod who had lost too much due to the words coming out a women's mouth that could care less about them and considers herself to be just the 'oracle' being one of those that fit the description pretty well.

"Edward…" the softness in Archer's voice quickly rings no small amount of alarms within me; he had finely reached the end of his ropes. "What is this?"

I turned my head aside and instead took a looked towards the nightmare that I had seen the previous night. Like archer, the scenery didn't attract my attention but rather the four bodies within it which I knew.

"This is a vision of a possible future, a hidden memory-image planted within the class-card installed within me if we are to be more specific." I explained, not seeing the need to say that what we were seeing was all curtsey of a certain self-proclaimed king of pranksters.

It all made sense now. The pieces fit together and the whole picture was there for me to see, Zelretch had made me believe that this was like one of his attempts of creating extra entertainment for himself, he had tricked me into acting and thinking that this had been an act made on whim.

But the truth was that Zelretch had seen it, many years ago before I had even taken my place as an active player in the game that we manipulators always like to play. And for the wizard Marshal, it had all started with two apprentices by the name of Rin Tohsaka and luviagelita Edelfelt.

Despite all odds, despite all precautions and experiences that were crammed somewhere within that Dead apostle ancestor's mind, Rin and Luviagelita had managed to find their place within his immortal life beyond of being just apprentices.

For a man whose existence and life was immortal in such way that all of those who he talks to will at the end turn into dust in the ashes of time….it was natural to carve entertainment and companionship, to add something to his life that could make it entertaining enough that he will have something to look forward to, Something that can give him a reason to not lose himself to the endless days and nights in front of him.

Those two girls were the ones who managed to fit the bill where the previous apprentices of the wizard marshal became mad in the futile effort of trying to inherit his power, the kaleidoscope.

Perhaps the best thing about those girls was that they both wanted to have nothing to do with the Kaleidoscope; I didn't knew why was this and why they refused to have anything to do with that power but I did know that Rin and Luvia both avoided the mentioning of the word 'kaleidoscope' like a plague.

What they had gained from their apprenticeship with the wizard marshal was the chance to further their Magecraft, gain political prestige with hosts of many other things that I didn't knew about but the Kaleidoscope had not been one of them.

I knew this because I had heard it from the mouth of the wizard marshal himself when we were sitting in a bar, he eating his cheeseburger while I sipped my Cola. It was four years ago, to think that I would learn the true depth of Kischur's words that were uttered four years ago made me feel like an idiot but hey, no one could accuse me of being infallible.

And it was just last night that I managed to truly see the actions of the dead apostle ancestor in a new light; stealing a time Machine from some alternative reality, using it to go to future and learn of the past which was the future of this time-line. Breaking through so many lines and so many Rules and Making _so many_ enemies, enough that a whole military-taskforce would be sent after his life like a pack of hounds.

Zelretch had been playing us all for years, planning and making his moves thirty-times before any of us had even realized that the board had been set. All of his efforts related to one single goal: to change the future, and what a way he used to succeed.

What easier way to change the future then to change the personality and thoughts of those that inhabited it? Their actions would naturally be different and the future along with it. A single pebble sliding down from the mountain can cause an avalanche and that Pebble's name was Edward Dastan or Shirou Fraga as the world knew the name, the same reason why Koronus had tried to kill me. My whole existence was a threat; Zelretch had made sure of that by giving me a glimpse of the possible future. No Doubt the same future that Koronus was trying to maintain.

I was the anomaly, the threat that was targeted just as Zelretch's head; Koronus couldn't afford to allow me to live because with every breath that I took the existence of their futuristic time-line was threatened.

Explaining as much to the one in front of me, I waited with the mental fatigue of a man that sometimes wished that he couldn't see the true depth of spoken words and happened events. It was a curse and a blessing at the same time, to having become so jaded and scared in life that you refused to accept things at face-value and always attempt to see what was underneath the underneath.

And I didn't need to do that to know there could be no peace between me and the task-force called Koronus; our existence is a threat to each other, none of us can live while the other one is doing the same.

' _You either kill the future or the future kills you,'_ a sudden familiar voice reminded me of my of the many problems that I had to face from now on after Caren had installed the class-card within me. _'It's the future's greatest killers against a Maker with a Faker inside of him, who is going to win?'_

' _We'll see who's going to win soon enough, so be silent until then.'_ It took no small amount of effort to ignore the mocking laughter that echoed deep at the back of my mind.

' _Silent? Oh i have been mostly silent since we have found ourselves here but no more,'_ it was like a switch had been flicked, something sudden and unexplainable in such way that no mere words could even hope to describe it. _'The time for silence has passed; there is no more room for you to Cloak yourself in shadow, war has been declared. Show them why they must fear you. Make them feel the despair of facing the one who stands as equal to the king of the battlefield!'_

' _Get back to your cage, you Damnable Pride.'_ I answered back, within the inner layer of my reality Marble I was omnipotent yet even with that kind of power it proved to be a challenge to push away the sudden presence at the back of my mind before it could merge with my own.

Naturally, it didn't go without at least leaving the Poison which was its words. _'Remember who you are, yours is the sin of Pride.'_

"…to tell me?"

The sudden question that came from the familiar voice of the counter-guardian brought my head back to game though it took me more than moment to collect my thoughts from the mess that they had become; I have faced monsters both legendary and mortal, I have killed mortals and made immortals bleed yet the greatest enemy that I had ever faced was always the one that was within me.

"Sorry," I apologized, taking a deep breath from the sudden distraction before aiming my focus towards my conversation with the counter-guardian. "Could you please repeat that?"

"I said why didn't you tell me this?" the counter-guardian repeated his question, his eyes were no longer containing the faraway look that I had been seeing on his face moments ago, his tone was also back to its usual calm albeit with the bitterness that was usually deeply hidden within him.

"I'm the Demigod here, Emiya. I have all the experience when it comes to dealing with prophecies and that is not one of them." I pointed towards the vision that we were currently seeing. "A prophecy is a foretelling of the coming events but that is a possible vision of the future, at the end nothing more than a possibility." My words seemed to have the intended effect of calming the counter-guardian and making him see reason, a rather good thing considering my rather unpredictable luck of crossing paths with those refusing to even let me finish saying my words before instantly branding me as something that they imagined me to be. "That and I had intended to tell you tonight after I had a few hours to even process what I had even seen."

"Process…" whatever words archer was going to use, they died the moment that my hand appeared on his white-haired head, forcing his gaze to be aimed at my other hand which was pointing towards the first of the four figures within the vision.

She was a woman who looked to be at the middle of her twenties, black hair and aqua Green eyes that I had seen glaring at me many times but now were shown empty and lifeless. A gray-white shirt covered her chest, its sleeves in tatters along with her arms with nothing remaining of the lower-portion of her body, a poll of blood and organs being the only thing that remained.

"That woman's name is Rin Tohsaka; they call her the flame empress. She's a very skilled sculpture especially when it comes to jewelry; her hobbies include Reading books and watching movies. She likes sweets and extremely dislikes things that have too-much pepper within them." even my voice came out Horace as I continued; "this is the woman that hates me, Emiya. You want to know why? It's because I can see through the cold-intellectual mask she likes to wear. It scares her that a 'cold-blooded killer' can do something like that to her but the simple truth that she doesn't know, is that I know her pain because I have experienced it first hand, that's why I keep sending her gifts when it comes to her birthdays and she unanimously does the same for me. It's terrifying to be alone in the world with no one to care about your life and existence."

I changed the target of now our gaze by moving and forcing Archer to do the same, never once did I stopped to think because I knew that I would cry just as I had done last night if I allowed myself to.

"That is Sakura Matou, the women I saw at her lowest and still accepted her for who she is." I pointed towards the Burnt corpse that was just feats away from Rin Tohsaka's. The Cloths and Muscles burned to the bone. There was enough distance between us but not enough to not being able to recognize what remained of the lavender-hair on her head. "I watched her turning from the miserable pile of regrets and emptiness that she had once been, into a woman of formidable capacity. Best of all, I watched her doing it all herself without any kind of help or aid from me. All I did was to give her something that no one had given me when I was in her position, a shoulder to lean onto."

I ignored the storm of memories that were unleashed as a result of my own words; Memories that were of days where I were in Sakura Matou's Place, a Broken man that had to constantly struggle for the right of picking-up the pieces of his life.

Those Memories were a life-time ago and belonged to a man that had been brought to the lowest of low and at his worst; Sanity and Mind stretched-thin to the limit with nightmares hunting every hour of sleep, alone and without anyone to be there for him when needed a helping presence the most. They were Mine and they reminded me of the one of the many reasons why I had went to such lengths for the once broken woman called Sakura Matou.

I didn't want to see Sakura go through such a thing as I had, didn't want her to experience how terribly difficult it was to pick-yourself up from the ground when there was no one to offer you a hand, _I didn't_ want another person to go through the same thing I did because the experience would forever change you both in mind and body.

The world had a tendency of collecting tragedies like how a dragon seeks to hoard a mountain of glittering gold; Making men and creating monsters like Edward Dastan or Now Shirou Fraga, Sakura's name didn't need to be added to that never-ending list of names. For who would be so cruel to stand aside and allow a woman to be turned into the same man that has no reflection when looking into the mirror? For all of my apathy and ruthlessness, I had enough shreds of mercy and empathy to stand against something like that at the very least.

And for that, Sakura was spared a fate and destiny that might have turned her into one like me. At least that action was heroic in its own way despite all of my denials of being a hero.

"And that's….that's…" suddenly my voice was turned more Horace then what I had thought to be possible, barely a whisper before it was completely gone, Refusing to come-out. A sudden weight on my sides told me that my hands were now hanging without any kind of strength within them. The only thing that refused to change was my eyes which were providing ample vision for me to see the two remnants that were once-upon a time alive and breathing but now surely dead and not amongst the living.

The only shard of mercy that I could find was the fact that I could not see the two properly; I could only see a tanned back which I knew belonged to the dead kneeling man. Covered in Red as if a cloak was draped over him with the exception that it was not a cloak that covered his form but blood, the only thing not covered in blood being his ashen-white hair. There was a mope of golden-blonde hair on his right shoulder, shadowing the face of a woman that I Personally knew to be somewhere of between twenties and thirties of age. Her once vibrant golden-brown eyes now lifeless and without any spark of life.

"….and that's Luviagelita Edelfelt," Archer's voice was calm and emotionless, his usual sarcastic cynical tone nowhere to be heard of. His hand was gripping my left shoulder which I now realized was shaking like a leaf. "A fiercely intelligent women with a subtle attitude of elitism and Perfectionist streaks, once-upon a time part of the Magi Family of Edelfelt but now Disowned due to her Divorce along with other complications." and holding her was Edward Dastan, the Servant of the bow didn't say but I knew the words nonetheless.

Immortals old and new, I was tired.

Yesterday I had went to the Fuykui Church, Confident in the foundation and preparations that I had made over the years to secure myself a spot within the Holy Grail war as a participant. I had so many plans old and new ones made possible through caster's help and abilities, so many tactics and ways for us to advance against the other servants along with their masters.

Now, all of them were in tatters, years of work and effort went down to the drain at the span of a single day just like that.

"…The fact that I and you have now seen this vision means that it's practically a guarantee that it won't be happening because our future actions will be absolutely different then what it was before." I said after allowing the vision in front of us to dissolve into nothingness, us within the land of my reality marble. "It's a possible future, Emiya. Not a prophecy where Destiny is said to be set in stone. Let's leave it at that and never speak about this again, better for the both of us that way."

Barely had I finished my words that I saw the coming move which I had known that the counter-guardian was going to take, a single thought made sure that it would not come to pass as sunlight and moonlight both appeared in the grasp of my hands instantly….

….just in time for Archer's fists to hit the ground, it would have cracked had it been any normal ground yet this ground belonged to my reality marble, it was never normal to begin with.

"Plant those swords, Edward." The servant of the bow got-up from his kneeling position, his eyes looked towards the swords that I was now holding then to my very own eyes. "you said it yourself that fighting against both Koronus and the holy grail war is going to be next to impossible, none of us can afford to hold-anything back with such odds against us."

"I admit that I had been desperate, hard not to be when you see your own death." I admitted, feeling no ounce of shame as I threw the counter-guardian's own words to his face. "But then you reminded me that no amount of power would ever worth the risk of losing my future, thank you for that by the way."

Archer's eyes twitched just as his hands were slowly rising like he was going to strangle the life out of someone, his face turned into interesting shades of red with teeth grinding against each other.

He had spent himself on such a tediously long argument filled with tears and pain-filled past against me to convince me not to unseal the swords and now he just found himself in the same position as myself and wanted me to unseal them.

' _Oh the irony,'_ A laughably sarcastic thought suddenly made my mood a bit lighter but it still didn't change the fact that I was mentally tired and spent.

"...you could have started by telling me about that vision," the servant of the bow's gaze was so intense that it was a wonder that nothing was caught on fire, my-self included. "I would have understood…"

"Desperation is a fickle thing, Emiya." I interjected, speaking the words that I had experienced first-hand and their ramifications haunted me even though I was a life-time away from them. "It can do strange things to us, it makes us focus on the present and lose sight of the future. Making us consider options that we think are for the best but in truth will come to haunt us as the foundation of our greatest mistakes. Take these words from someone who has learned their meanings the hard-way."

I looked towards the two swords that I considered being so dangerous that the mere evidence of their existence would be enough for the moon-light world to take-up arms against me; they were no noble phantasms, none of the continents of my reality marble were, it was natural that they did not possess the status that the legendary weapons were famed for throughout the ages.

Yet these blades were still powerful in their own right, they were now at the level of _conceptual_ power just as their limitations were also conceptual.

' _Look at them,'_ my gaze looked towards sharp-edges of sunlight and moonlight, Fire and Ice made to be incarnated. _'Beautiful swords, powerful swords made of the ice and fire. Yet they are merely heralds of what is to come.'_

If I had wanted acceptance, I could have started our conversation through showing archer the same vision that I had seen last night but acceptance had not been what I needed or sought for.

What I had recognized to need was a pair of eyes that could see past the wall that was my desperation; I wanted another pair of eyes to look towards the road in front of me and tell me if there was another way for me to proceed by stepping forward, archer had proven to me that how similar of a step I had nearly taken to his past.

The difference between his situation and mine was as the sun and the moon yet the ends were disturbingly similar in a way that put shivers down to my spine; it would have been a very terrible mistake beyond imagining, a mistake that I had once made by thinking that I could trick a primordial through words.

Tartarus had made me pay for that by branding my soul with the sin which was the cause of my mistake, Pride stroked by desperation.

Emiya had saved me from repeating a mistake that I would always do my best to never forget, the glint that had appeared in the counter-guardian's eyes told me that he knew it too but not to the extent that I knew off.

He didn't knew about my eternal cursed soul and the less he knows about it the better, all he would know was that I had used his perception and his eyes to see where my own eyes could not.

"You and you're damn word-plays…." I heard the said counter-guardian mutter under his breath; resigned over the fact that he could not currently convince me, Though the look on his face made me guess that this discussion would be revisited later. "Where are we going from here, Edward?"

"I don't know," I admitted without hesitation, being wise enough to recognize that there was a time and place for everything and now was no time for vague answers and mysteries. I was just going to give a straight answer, a rare commodity that I considered to be sometimes more valuable than a chest full of gold. "All I know is that we are at a crossroads where _we_ have to choose on how are we going to continue from up here, and I can't make that choice for the both of us because it won't just be my life that will be affected by it."

Perhaps it had been the desperation that I had felt on seeing my own death or maybe it was because of everything that had happened at the span of a single day which was yesterday; Either way that I now looked at it, I had forgotten one of the most important things that made me feel like the worst scum to have ever walked the earth.

I had forgotten that the servant within me was entitled to make his own opinions known and make his own choices; Counter-guardian Emiya may have done a lot of mistakes but he was a man, at least the spirit of a man that was a copy of the original one but he was still a Person and my choice had nearly forced him down into a path which he had once walked-upon.

Living alone so many times had made me lose sight of the rather simple fact that my choices wouldn't just affect me and my life but also the man that had taken refuge within me; archer knew my mistake all too well yet not once did he brought it to words and neither did he look any different towards me, he merely waited for me continue.

It made me feel all the more miserable; if Perseus Jackson's fatal flaw was Loyalty then surely mine was Pride, it reared its ugly head no-matter how many times I squashed and fought against it. Desperation was always the wood that would fuel it and I knew well-enough what would happen if I were to give in.

' _Always remember, Edward. Pride compelled by desperation is the first step towards the fall,'_ I reminded myself, _'this time you managed to slip its grasp with Archer's help but there is no guarantee that the same thing will happen for the next time. Give-in and there will no turning back. Don't forget the past else you're doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Tartarus taught you that much at the very least.'_

"Edward," Archer let out a sigh that contained such bitterness that his usual cynical tone could even hope to contain, I made a note that the servant of the bow seemed to have a knack for interrupting my thoughts and somehow guessing them to some extent. "I'm a servant. a copy of the original. I don't have any right to tell you how to live your life or what to do because I'm already dead." Even the word 'dead' seemed to make the servant cringe, "choice is not for the dead because it's the luxury of the living…its consequences are also naturally for the later rather than the former."

There was so much age and wisdom within Emiya's words that I could not possibly find myself to replay; Death didn't make those who had tasted it suffer; it was the living that always mourned the passing of the dead, not the other-way around. Ironic that they were also ones who dealt with the consequences of those passed away.

"But then what does that make me? I'm a dead demigod whose soul was supposed to have been anywhere else but the body of a brain-dead boy." I mused, wondering what kind of answer the counter-guardian would give to my words before quickly discarding it in the recognition that now was not the time for my occasional philosophical questions and riddles.

"We both know that's not the point," Archer's response left no room for arguments, as expected. "I'm thankful that you listen to my opinions and words but at the end it's your choice to make, it's not my call but _yours._ " The finger that he pointed at me was as pointed as the many noble-phantasm armaments that the counter-guardian had within his noble phantasm. "And right now the choice that you have to make is simple; you have to gather yourself and then find a way to get us back into the game or else we'll be toast, literally."

"That's the problem, Emiya." I answered back, "there is no game to go back to because neither of us can play the same game that the wizard marshal is playing against us; he's so far ahead of us that there is no chance for us to even catch-up to him, let alone winning against him in his own game." I closed my eyes for a brief-moment, thinking and wondering deeply before I opened them. "We need to flip the board; there is no other way that we can win."

Zelretch had too many pieces and too many options and _too many advantages_ that neither of us could even begin think of; he has been playing for years, making his moves from the shadows just as I had. The difference between us came vastly in our capability of moving our pieces on the board and positioning them where they were at their best and most advantageous to our aims, the wielder of kaleidoscope was so far ahead that I couldn't do anything even now that I knew about his possible intent and involvement.

His actions and movements were covered in the unknown far too deeply then mine; the resources and options available to him were leagues above what I could muster, and finely-his pieces had already been placed within the board. Turning it into their own territory where I couldn't even hope to make a move without picking-up a rock and throwing it at my own foot at the end.

I was outclassed, outmaneuvered and outsmarted. I was defeated by all rights and rules if I were to continue playing Zelretch's game, it would only be a matter of time.

But unfortunately for that self-proclaimed king of pranksters, I wasn't going to be playing by rights and rules.

"Flipping the board on the one that is said to be the incarnation of chaos and madness…" Archer wondered-out loud, not impressed by my words. "That's a bold claim, even for you."

"Not exactly," I disagreed instantly, "you see, Zelretch is not the only one that knows how to throw a screw-driver into other people's lives." I scowled at the mention of screw-drivers and Zelretch's uncanny skill in their use; he could bring out all the screw-drivers in his arsenal for all I cared, I had boxes of dynamite under my bed and workshop that were just begging to be used and I wasn't afraid to use all of them in one go by stashing them under the wizard marshal's imaginary throne and light the fuse.

"Whatever we do to that old bag of bones, he can do far worse to us." Archer said ruefully, "besides, what are you going to do to him exactly? Send Lorelei after him?"

"We can't involve Lorelei into this, she will have our heads if she finds out that someone has stolen from her family vaults and had used something that was supposed to be destroyed a long time ago." I smiled in response to archer's interest in hearing my answer, "I'm going to show Zelretch his greatest and most dangerous foe that he has ever faced."

"And who is that?" archer asked while leaning forward a bit in anticipation of my answer towards his question, "Someone who can rival the wizard-marshal of kaleidoscope? This I have to see."

"Oh, you'll see soon enough." I promised with certainty and confidence that left no room for doubt. "That blood-drinking prankster is soon going to meet his match. I just need to make a call."

In the future, I would look back and think about this decision as the moment that everything was set into motion. Little knowing of the journey that it would set all of us on, the paths we'd unintentionally take, or the world that we'd eventually bring crashing down.

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 _ **XXX~XoX~XXX**_

 _ **Author note:**_

 _ **I have to admit that writing this chapter was a challenge itself because the amount of things that I wanted to introduce to the readers and the times which I had to delete the whole chapter and rewrite it again was simply so frustrating that words couldn't even begin to describe the amount of headaches that I had to nurse. So I'm just going to keep this author note organized and cleaned for both my sake and those that wish to read it.**_

 _ **Introduction of type-moon's favorite character called archer:**_ _ **if some of my dear readers have visited the type-moon wiki you might notice that the first-rated character within the fate series is no one other than our favorite white-haired archer. I have read through his Bio, Personality and abilities sections but still there were many things that were confusing especially when it came to his personality and interaction. In one hand he is a bit like Shirou Emiya and on the other hand he is like himself, it just got confusing in my sort of ways that I instantly recognized that it would be a cause of problem for the Readers to understand him.**_

 _ **Simply put, i decided to roll-up my sleeves and so something which I had intended to do since starting the reincarnation cycle project. I humanized archer through Realistic logic, reason and experience. Technically speaking, archer's role within the fate stay night was mostly either as a side-character (fate stay night 1) and antagonist that was used as a stepping stone for Shirou Emiya (fate stay night unlimited blade works)**_

 _ **I don't know about the archer within the heaven's feel because I had only see the first part of the movie and the rest will come out who knows when.**_

 _ **As you can see; I didn't have much material to work with and give the readers the character that they wanted, reading the type-moon wiki could only get you so far…I hope that I had done an excellent job in introducing archer into this work by dedicating a whole chapter to building his personality, interaction and experience gained through past including His feelings, his fears and his ways of thinking.**_

 _ **If not…well, then I apologize and will try to do better from now on.**_

 _ **This chapter was important for the story it give a more in-depth look into the man called counter-guardian Emiya, or at least I hope it was as I had intended it to be.**_

 _ **Reality Marble theories and workings:**_ _ **this was another source of headaches for me because the type-moon wiki page that explained about its concept and workings were just too complicated and made little sense in my opinion. The explanation was just too-vague and flexible for a power that is supposed to be possessed by a Main Character, that was why I had used the interaction between archer and Edward as a way to clear-out the explanation and make it more understandable not just for the audience but also for myself.**_

 _ **No disrespect but the chance of confusion was just too high and a material that the audience doesn't know or can't understand is just a waste on the page in my opinion (I certainly didn't understand it well even after reading the type-moon wiki about reality marble). The author of all stories must write in a way where the audience can be excited and be interested into the story otherwise it would be abandoned at the middle of it, confusion destroys interest and that is not something that I'm going to tolerate in my projects.**_

 _ **The author must treat all the audience in a way that means they are not familiar with canon-knowledge; that's why you need to describe characters, give reasonable shape to their personalities and powers.**_

 _ **Example: Shirou Emiya entered into a room**_

 _ **If a reader isn't familiar with one called Shirou Emiya, he or she will have to either visit the wiki-page or look to the character named 'Shirou Emiya' through the internet.**_

 _ **That is completely unacceptable in any form or shape that you want to describe it, that's a rookie mistake that has seen stories being abandoned more than once and don't even get me started on the writer's blocks.**_

 _ **That's why I had planned the whole lecture that Edward give to EMIYA; This way the audience will be more familiarized with one of the Main character's powers, be introduced to the concept of reality marbles and will be more excited about the possible development of it in the future.**_

 _ **Best of all, I planned the whole thing in a way which happened as a conversation-interaction between Edward and EMIYA. That's means that I had dodged having the MC monologue to readers for goodness knows how long.**_

 _ **(Here is an important advice: best powers are normally introduced through conversations and interactions between a character that doesn't know about it and the other character which is explaining about it. That's why we see so many villains in the anime/manga and films explain about their powers to one another, it's a form of audience attraction that works on anything including revealing pasts, powers and ways of thinking which a character is supposed to think)**_

 _ **The importance of Power and the difference of Class-cards which many have mistaken:**_ _ **I have read many fan fictions and some of them just throw around powers like candy towards Main Characters without any thought about how they are going to use them and make them more interesting. They just give one power after another until the MC is simply bloated with so many that the author doesn't know where to even begin while the audience lose interest in the main character that is unreasonably OP.**_

 _ **One of the reasons why we all read and like characters is because of their powers and their interaction towards the events and the world around them through their use. Categorization is the key to building a character that not just interests the audience but also makes the author love to write about them.**_

 _ **If you're going to give you're Main Character power or powers, think first about what kind of character you are going to build and what kind of power are you going to give them with. What does this power do to them? Will it make them interesting or will it just be accepted willy-nilly without any kind of consequence or effect on the Main character's personality or physical body? The former is the key that you should focus on and the latter is a trap that I have seen many falling into, unfortunately.**_

 _ **Example: The Hulk is one of the most powerful Marvel character within his respective universe, able to grow more powerful as he goes more berserk. What has this power done to its owner which is the scientist called Doctor Bruce banner? It has made him public enemy number one with the military and the whole host of troubles that haunt him whenever he goes.**_

 _ **With great power might come great responsibility but it also most certainly comes with a great-price too; look at one piece, Devil fruits are mystical fruits that will change your whole physiology and give you powers if you eat them. However the same devil fruits will make you unable to swim and will turn water into you're most mortal enemy where it can kill you by paralyzing you're whole body, just jump into the sea and you'll be good as gone.**_

 _ **See what I mean? That's how you give powers, you think about their functions and their limitations along with the effects that they have on their users.**_

 _ **Now, when I introduced the Class-card implementation power-up what did I add to it? I made it for what it was. Please think about it, what is more terrifying then being changed both in Personality, mind and body due to a power that you have? What about the one you are becoming and what will you see when you finely start to experience the memories of your future-self? Will there something left of you or are you going to become a whole different person?**_

 _ **That's called the fear of the unknown; H.P Lovecraft knew it best, and he wrote horror novels with it.**_

 _ **Now what are the weaknesses of the class-cards installed? They only provide you with 50% percent physical prowess increase. Means that you don't have the power of a servant (that means no bench-pressing buildings for you, Edward.) and that's just one of but the many short-comings that comes from class-cards, I have give even a hint about one of the many side-effects of the class-cards if you have read the conversation between Edward and EMIYA Carefully when he asks about the class-cards, personality disorder and the development of second personalities is a series issue here, and they're not even the tip of the ice-berg.**_

… _ **.i have grown tired to the amount of PM that are asking me if I'm going to turn Edward 'overpowered' or Nerf his powers through explainable reason. The answer to all these questions is a big 'NO' that I hope will shed some light for everyone.**_

 _ **Seriously, giving the one-hundred percent power of a heroic spirit to a master? Then what am I doing introducing servants into this story?**_

 _ **That's one of the most important things about giving you're MC Powers, make sure that it's not the kind of power that robs the other characters of their spotlights and roles.**_

 _ **Nerf and downplay Edward's powers? Then what's the point of introducing class-cards?**_

 _ **You all thought that I was just going to take the excitement out of Edward's powers like that? that's not going to happen because here ladies and gentlemen, we have masters implemented with class-cards and with all of them their own noble phantasms (thinking about the Noble phantasms that Rin Tohsaka, Sakura Matou and even Luviagelita are going to possess is probably enough to make you wonder what I have in store for the future right?) so that means that there can no such thing as a character becoming OP When there are others with similarly conceptual powers.**_

 _ **Edward is not Over-powered, not when he isn't the only one with conceptual powers and mastered abilities. There are many characters in this story and I'm not ashamed to admit they are powerful in their own right and interesting in their own way.**_

 _ **The issue of Zelretch:**_ _ **as you all saw in this chapter, the wizard-marshal him-self is also on the move with unknown intents and agendas. He is now part of this story and for the life of me, I couldn't find a better person to play the role of the ultimate manipulator and foe that Edward could not find a way to beat.**_

 _ **His appearance in this story is as a**_ _ **main character**_ _ **and not some side-show character that I have seen many respectable authors use; I like to see if anyone now tries to call Edward OP when we have Zelretch here.**_

 _ **If you know someone who can rival Zelretch the wizard marshal (Gilgamesh not included, that guy is just meant to be powerful beyond measure. No objections here.) Let me know.**_

 _ **End of the author note:**_ _ **all-right, a lot of things happened in this chapter. We get to read about Edward's past-life and Counter guardian Emiya's. Character personalities and powers were built and a lot of other things that is just too much for me to write here.**_

 _ **Please read, review and leave your comments.**_

 _ **This is titan of war, signing out.**_

 _ **Word count for this chapter: 22,020**_


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